It is hard being a hot hatch in the inherently silent electric era, but Abarth found a way of continuing its legacy in the new 500e despite the fact it doesn’t come with an exhaust. The rather controversial Sound Generator feature of the EV took more than 6,000 hours of development work.
The Abarth 500e has a fully electric powertrain producing 134 hp (100 kW / 136 PS) and 220 Nm (162 lb-ft) of torque. Still, engineers made it sound like a combustion-engined vehicle, using the sound of its predecessor. The Sound Generator imitates the sound of the turbocharged petrol engine of the 595 / 695 series, both idle and while driving. The system can be turned on and off by the driver, so those who prefer a silent EV won’t have to look elsewhere. Having said that, there must be some young Abarth fans that will enjoy the fake engine sounds, or else the automaker wouldn’t bother trying so hard to create them.
Read: Abarth Planning More Powerful Variants Of The 500e
The system was developed by a “dedicated sound design team” in collaboration with Sound Design Studios. More than 6,000 hours of development were spent in two years, making for approximately 6 months of continuous work. Development and testing took place at the Stellantis Italian NVH department, where the ICE-powered Abarth 595 and 695 validated the sound of their Record Monza exhaust. The special “semi-anechoic chamber” of the facilities with a reflecting floor, allows the engineers to recreate road conditions, and test the sound to its limits in an insulated environment.
Everything started by recording the sounds of the long-serving turbocharged 1.4-liter engine in all different states of driving (acceleration, deceleration, braking, fast cornering, and more). The powertrain will be discontinued by the end of this year together with the demise of the 595 and 695 range, giving way to the EV-only future of the brand.
The resulting sound files were looped and edited, leading to the creation of a new tone that was “enriched by additional sounds”. Depending on the state of the EV, the computer chooses the right blend of sounds to emit from the exterior rear speaker. According to Abarth, the Sound Generator is “directly proportional to the speed at which the car is driven”. In reality, while the effect is quite realistic in Idle mode successfully replicating the growl of the Record Monza exhaust, the Signature mode during driving sounds like it is infinitely stuck in first gear. Note that this is additional to the “strumming guitar sound” that the 500e makes when it gets over 20 km/h (12 mph) for the first time which is designed to warn pedestrians.
Interestingly, the Italian brand didn’t include sound clips or videos in the latest press release, but we found an official video that gives us a first taste of the feature (from the 3:04 mark onwards). Abarth adds that while the sound effects respect homologation constraints for noise pollution, their fake sound system reaches the limits allowed by the legislation, which is another way of saying that this is a loud EV.
