Honda wonders if you’d like gas-engine sounds inside your EV

• Honda might add the sounds of vintage performance models to future EVs
• The sounds might be offered for download for a small cost
• Honda’s next-gen user interface could enable in-vehicle purchase capability 

The upcoming Honda 0 Series EVs are shaping up to be super-quiet inside. 

But would you rather like your Honda EV to sometimes sound like a high-revving S2000 roadster? Or revisit the gauge cluster look—as well as the sound of that CRX Si you once drove? 

Last week I got to sample such a system as part of a so-called Digital UX Concept installed in a Japanese-market Honda e. It provided a glimpse of the things that Honda might make available for a relatively small cost in future EVs. The 0 Series ushers in Honda’s next-generation interface, with facial recognition, regular over-the-air updates, and in-vehicle purchases perhaps enabled on a market-by-market basis. 

In addition to the S2000 and CRX, other choices included a new Civic Type R, the NSX Type S from earlier this decade, and the final NSX-R form of the first-generation mid-engine sports car from 2002. 

Honda EV sport sound feature for future UX

Each of the demos revamped the instrument cluster with the look of the original vehicle’s gauge cluster, accommodating quick revs of the engine in Park. Honda noted that the system responds when the vehicle is moving based both on speed and accelerator position, but it doesn’t simulate gears. 

One of the most noteworthy in the demonstration was the Honda Jet. In that setting, gradually flooring the accelerator recreated a takeoff. 

It’s one of the tightest integrations I’ve experienced for such a feature; if you’re over the gimmick you can simply go quiet as usual. The sounds are only for inside the vehicle, so in this case those outside the vehicle probably won’t know the difference.

Honda EV sport sound feature for future UX

Honda EV sport sound feature for future UX

Honda EV sport sound feature for future UX

The feature, in the form of modules to be downloaded for a small fee, is only said to be under consideration. It might not be exclusive to upcoming 0 Series EVs, though, since the user interface being designed for the 0 Series will eventually be deployed throughout the Honda lineup, including in hybrids and other gasoline vehicles.

Everyone feels differently about EV sounds, it seems, when it doesn’t relate directly to safety. The NHTSA has said no to EV driver-selectable pedestrian sounds, and other sounds like Tesla’s Boombox, which under its original rollout drowned out federally mandated warning sounds. You can buy aftermarket noisemakers for Teslas that generate engine sounds both inside and out, and the upcoming Dodge Charger Daytona EV trumpets its own tune.