Sounds of silence: How quiet are heavy duty electric trucks?

It has been one of the common themes of this year’s IAA Transportation Hub in Hanover, the biggest trucking show in the world. The buzzword is electric, and the comparative quiet, for the driver and local communities, has been one of the main selling points.

Mercedes Benz, the “home town” company and one of the world’s dominant truck suppliers, even has one of its electric trucks, the e-Actros 300,  fitted out with a special presentation in a trailer, dubbed “Discover the Silence.”

It presents a series of noise experiences for both the driver and the customer, in moments of both acceleration and “constant” drive by. The difference between electric and conventional trucks, as you can tell from the video below, is striking.

The video starts off with the inside truck experience for the driver at times of acceleration, first with electric and then with conventional. Then it shows the constant drive by noise, again first with electric then with conventional, first in built up areas and then in the countryside. With electric, you can actually hear the birds.

Quieter for communities, and for drivers

According to Volvo Trucks, the difference been electric and conventional trucks is immense, a reduction in decibels from 79dB (A) to 69dB (A) for local communities, which is actually a fall of 50 per cent (Decibels are a non-linear measurement).

That’s important, because most of the truck runs that will be served by electric trucks, at least initially, will be port to logistics centres, and then to retail distribution points, and then the last mile deliveries. These are mostly in built up areas.

The noise experience for the driver is also dramatically reduced from 59dB (A) to 52dB (A), and that is also important because it improves the work environment, lessens driver fatigue and – along with the improved handling and performance – makes for a better place to work.

The author travelled to the Hanover IAA at the invitation of Volvo Trucks.