Electric motors are much quieter than gasoline engines. Yet customers report the noise from the motors to be more annoying than engine noise.

The problem is the type of noise that electric motors make.

Rather than the deeper “growl” from an engine that car-enthusiasts have come to love, electric motors emit a higher pitched “whine.” The type of whine that makes you cringe.

So what can car makers do about this?

Obviously eliminating the sound would work well. And maybe that’s a viable long term solution.

But for now, when the motor sound can’t be eliminated, the best answer might be actually be the least intuitive one – adding more noise.

What if rather than eliminating the sound, we could just hide it?

What if we introduced low frequency noise to mask the sound from the electric motor?

Maybe it’s counterintuitive.

But actually, maybe it’s not.

Have you ever doused nasty food with ketchup, or some other condiment?

-Brandon