It’s one of the most distinctive sounds in the great outdoors — the growl of a jaguar. Soon, however, it will be a thing of the past. The only place you’ll be able to hear it is in the hallowed halls of the British Museum in London.
Before you rush off to the zoo for a last look at this wonderful predator, let me explain: I’m talking about Jaguar with a capital “J”, not the kitty cat. Jaguar, the car brand, has recorded the distinctive engine noise of its turbocharged F-Type V8 to join other sounds to be stored at the museum.
According to Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), these include “other culturally significant entries such as the first street recordings of cars”.
JLR’s Indian owner, Tata Group, last week announced plans to invest more than £4bn in an electric car battery gigafactory in England. Expected to start production in 2026, the project aims to produce 40 gigawatt-hours of batteries annually, to power hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles (EVs). In theory, it will produce half the UK’s total demand.
As I’ve written before, the drive towards electric power will rob many iconic brands of the natural engine noises that have made make them famous. I write “natural” because some companies have recorded them to provide the soundtrack to the otherwise pianissimo sound of their future cars.
They won’t be completely silent — tyre and wind noise will see to that — but it’s doubtful if these will be enough to alert pedestrians and cyclists to tons of metal coming their way in a hurry.
An Australian study found that 35% of respondents with vision problems had either been hit by an EV, or suffered a close call. That’s why some countries require EVs to emit a distinctive sound, amplified by exterior speakers, that changes frequency as speed increases.
Some brands want that sound to reflect their personality — hence a recording of the original engine sound. Others are more adventurous. Some leading composers and music producers have been hired to create distinctive soundtracks. One, for a Renault EV, is said to be like “being chased by a heavenly choir of angels”.
Jaguar, Porsche, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin are among sporty brands wholeheartedly chasing the EV dream. So are many mass-market brands — though, in some cases, a little less wholeheartedly than they once were.
The drive towards electric power will rob many iconic brands of the natural engine noises that have made make them famous
In March, the EU eased off on its outright ban on sales of vehicles with petrol and diesel internal combustion engines (ICEs). The ban, due in 2035, will now temporarily exclude ICEs using carbon-neutral synthetic fuels, or e-fuels. The jury is out on whether e-fuels, which can be distributed through the existing service station network, are commercially feasible. If they are, real engine roars will survive a little longer.
The EU is also under pressure to relax its planned 2040 ban on hybrid-electric vehicles, using dual electric and ICE technology.
The UK, scheduled to ban ICEs from 2030 and hybrids from 2035, may also be reconsidering its deadlines. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak this week conspicuously failed to publicly back the policy. In a TV interview, he deflected direct questions on whether the deadline dates are set in stone.
His spokesperson later said Sunak’s view was that any policy should be “proportionate and pragmatic and doesn’t unfairly impact the public”.
All UK political parties are aware of growing voter resistance, particularly in London, to policies designed to force motorists to switch to EVs. In the capital, they are subject to punitive taxes and daily penalties for using ICEs.
More than half of the vehicles built by South African motor companies are exported to the UK and EU, so these deadline deliberations are of the utmost importance to the local motor industry.
In May, trade, industry & competition minister Ebrahim Patel said EU policy vacillation justified the South African government’s delay in determining a policy for new-energy vehicles — most of them EVs but also leaving the door open for hydrogen and other forms of zero-emissions power.
With the UK now possibly open to a rethink, one can imagine a growing, but misplaced, sense of “I told you so!” within the department.
Environmentalists say current record temperatures and fierce wildfires around the world, particularly in Europe, underline the need for the motor industry not to row back on existing deadlines.
One thought, though, on using rising temperatures as a stick to champion the cause of EVs. A US study has found that, the higher the temperature, the less efficient they become.
At 27°C, it says, the range a vehicle can travel on a single charge diminishes by an average 2.8%. At 32°C, the loss is 5%. But when the temperature tops 38°C, or 100°F, the range drops by up to 31%.
Who said EVs were the hot new thing?
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