Lamborghini is researching a number of solutions that bring realistic sound to the experience of driving an electric car.
Electric car brands like Tesla inherently have the power of supercars, so many people wonder where brands like Lamborghini will go. In an interview with CTO – Chief Technical Officer Rouven Mohr, the Italian car company plans to preserve the emotions of the driving experience through realistic sound.
Obviously, sound is an important feature of most supercars, not just Lamborghini, but the transition to electric cars is also very quiet.
Regarding the sound of the Lamborghini EVs, Mohr told The Drive that the team is “working towards minimizing artificial sounds as much as possible,” even saying that it is “unacceptable” that a complete noise completely synthetic.
What’s the big deal with synthetic noises like the one in the Kia EV6? “You feel a separation between what the car is doing and the sound that indicates the car is working,” Mohr said. In an effort to eliminate that “separation,” Lamborghini considers sound one of the top concerns for its EV production cars.
“At this moment, that is one of the most important things… The brand has a long way to go to find the perfect sound. We have some ideas, some suggestions, but for now they are I haven’t decided what the final production car will have,” he said.
How do you get realistic sound from a drive system that’s notoriously quiet? Mohr said it would likely depend on amplification and correlation.
“We are experimenting with removing the frequency of the electric motor, amplifying something, eliminating something, and in particular this frequency is more similar to the drive system,” he explained.
Interestingly, Mohr compared this amplified sound to the way internal combustion engines regulate exhaust flows, while also amplifying the sound: “What you hear from the internal combustion engine block is Nowadays it’s all by design. But the basic sound comes from something very real.”
While mainstream automakers typically don’t invest resources into exhaust tuning, performance-focused brands do. In fact, custom exhaust system manufacturers spend time tuning their products to create the most unique sounds.
Does the electric car produced by Lamborghini sound as good as traditional V12 supercars? Everyone is skeptical about this, but will expect something different anyway.