SILENCE is the gold standard that 70% of motorists want to achieve and one being promoted by the electric vehicle (EV) lobby.

Green campaigner organisation Go Ultra Low says its new research reveals most motorists believe that a quieter cabin would help improve their mood and reduce stress during the time they spend in the car.

It points out that test conducted by its consortium of car manufacturer partners showed that interior noise levels of electric vehicles and their conventionally-powered equivalents can vary by up to 6dB(A) – a significantly audible difference.

The new research also found that 74% of the UK’s car-driving population above 30 years-old desire “more ‘quiet time’ in everyday life”, with 83% of the same group believing that “Britain is a much nosier place compared with 10 years ago”.

According to noise experts, fluctuations in sound levels can have a real impact on our emotions.

Professor Duncan Williams, psycho-acoustician at Plymouth University, said: “Many of the sounds people find most annoying and stressful are dynamic – this is no surprise as humans are neurologically ‘hard-wired’ to respond to such noise. What makes this annoying is when the noises are beyond our control – they are basically unwelcome intruders into our personal space.”

While the research found that the ability to enjoy a ‘quiet’ car journey is important to the majority of motorists, eight out of 10 participants also believed that a reduction in car engine noise would allow them to hold better conversations with passengers and increase their enjoyment of music.

Go Ultra Low is a campaign brings together, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles, SMMT and a consortium of leading car manufacturers: Audi, BMW, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault, Toyota, and Volkswagen.