[Quietcars] Chevrolet volt review: No mention of audible cues for pedestrians.

[Robert Wilson]

Hi Michael,
If S.841 follows the pattern of recent safety legislation, it may not come into effect until as late as 2016. Still, folks are right to focus on the Volt. In November 2009, the NFB visited the GM development center and the subsequent press releases implied the GM approach was NFB approved. 
> Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 01:15:26 -0500> From: mrtownsend at optonline.net
> To: quietcars at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [Quietcars] Chevrolet volt review: No mention of audible cues for pedestrians.
> 
> I just was pointing out that which I'd read, but thanks for your insight.
Sharing insights, there was a July 2010 podcast interview with Chelsea Sexton, one of the EV1 development engineers:What Drives Us - Episode 22 "Our First Movie Star"
Chelsea pointed out that the EV1 noise maker was one of the least liked aspects by those who had leased them. I have long wondered if the Automotive Alliance support was to get this least popular, EV1 feature mandated for hybrids and nudge marginal hybrid buyers back into a traditional gas or diesel car. This is consistent with an informal, GM engineering mandate that the word "HYBRID" be incorporated in the body paint of their true hybrids like the Tahoe. This makes sure they remain visually unattractive and vehicle style impacts sales.Looking at the December 2010 sales and summary for all of 2010, there were:326 - Chevy Volt19 - Nissan LEAFThese are the only production vehicles with noise generators, first sold in December and both are driver enabled. Fisker and Tesla have announced noise generators but no sales were listed. Lotus, a noise generator advocate, sells no such cars:http://www.hybridcars.com/hybrid-clean-diesel-sales-dashboard/december-2010.htmlOne interesting quote from the 2010 Dashboard sales summary about the middle-ground hybrids:
". . . These hybrids [Honda Insight, Lexus RX 400h, Ford Fusion Hybrid, and Lexus 250h, RJW] selling more than 10,000 units for the year form a bloc that stands separate from low selling that seem like experiments from half-hearted automakers. . . ."
The GM hybrids are firmly in the "experiments from half-hearted automakers" and Lotus "has no dog in that fight." Regardless, we're looking at three to five years of likely manually operated noise makers before hybrid become audio beacons. 
Bob Wilson