Noise emission levels for electric and hybrid vehicles — First results of the FOREVER project

The FOREVER project (Future OpeRational impacts of Electric Vehicles on national European Roads), which started in January 2013, intends to identify the impact of electric and hybrid-electric vehicles on road traffic noise. Initially developed for urban situations, these vehicles can now be encountered on national road networks due to the increase of their electric range. This paper presents in a first stage results regarding the characterization of their noise emission using relevant measuring techniques and a reflection on how they could be used as input data of the CNOSSOS-EU prediction model for an environmental quantification. The data presented concerns mainly measurements carried out on light vehicles, although heavier vehicles will also be considered in the project. In a second stage, in complement to EPNL (Effective Perceived Noise Level) we analyze data obtained with a system of perceptual dimensions to assess how the variation in the character of the noise from different vehicle mixes is likely to affect annoyance levels.