Future Operational Impacts of Electric Vehicles on National European Roads
Sustainability and energy efficiency are becoming increasingly important, so the use of electric vehicles (hybrid or fully electric) in European road networks is increasing. While the focus of noise related research has been on the use of these vehicles in low speed urban areas, in particular with regard to the safety risks for vulnerable road users, so far few studies have been carried out on the potential noise exposure of electric vehicles on roads under the responsibility of National Road Authorities (NRAs), namely motorways and other main roads.
The FOREVER project aimed to address acoustic issues related to e-mobility in the higher level road network by providing data and information on three topics:
- first the identification of the noise emission levels from electric vehicles (powertrain and rolling noise components) at speeds representative of NRA roads, including the impacts of added alert sounds and the development of input data for the CNOSSOS-EU noise model,
- second the noise emission from low-noise tires, and
- third an estimation of the noise impacts of electric vehicles and low-noise tires on NRA roads, based on different fleet compositions and different take-up rates of electric vehicles.
This project was funded under the CEDR Transnational Research Programme, Call 2012 “Noise – Integrating strategic noise management into the operation and maintenance of national road networks”. For more information see the project webpage: http://forever.fehrl.org/