As any city dweller or visitor knows, traffic is a significant source of the noise we experience every day. Our loud cities are getting noisier as they become more densely populated.

The European Union is committed to reducing pollution across the member states and noise pollution forms a part of this strategy, as stated in the Environment Action Programme “Living within our limits”. 

The EU wants its citizens to be greener, and to have more people use public transport. But realistically, most of us still want or need our own car, so the move towards the accessible adoption of greener vehicles needs to be accelerated. Directives and regulations are supporting eVehicles but we have yet to see broad public adoption of eVehicles. 

The new Pass By noise regulations are introducing big changes to European vehicle laws in two ways – how noise levels are measured and maximum limits of noise produced by vehicles. 

The way we measure traffic noise is also to change. These new regulations will see those noise measurements reflect what people on the street experience, rather than an idealised test scenario, and reductions made accordingly. 

The decibel reduction targets are tough. In 2023 only 70% of today’s cars will meet the new standards. That will decrease further to only 30% in 2027. Buses and trucks fall under this legislation too, everything on EU roads will have to become quieter in the coming decade.

The automotive industry needs to take action now or face major consequences in the next decade but existing materials do not meet the challenging targets set by the EU. Thick and heavy slabs of conventional materials are required to block noise, especially at low frequencies, making cars heavier and less spacious. This added bulk can cause a knock on effect on emissions and battery capacity.

Vehicle noise mainly comes from two sources, the powertrain or engine, and the tyres. There are around 50 kilos of acoustic material in a mid-range car. These materials are in the roof, floor, tyres, powertrain, engine housing, doors, they’re everywhere. The move to eVehicles will reduce the need for acoustic materials around the engine, but increase it in other places like the tyres and doors.  

Advanced materials are one solution to achieve streamlined designs in a sector where fuel efficiency and battery capacity are top priorities. Talk to us today about designing SoundBounce into your next generation vehicles and get ahead of the regulations. 

Eimear O’Carroll - CTO and co-founder of SoundBounce spoke on this topic at the 2019 IAA New Mobility conference in Germany.