Minimum Noise Requirements for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles

Transport Canada is requesting comments on amending the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations to address minimum noise requirements for hybrid and electric vehicles.

Visually impaired and disability associations believe hybrid and electric vehicles (HEV) need to produce noise so people with visual impairments can hear them. A Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (CMVSS) 141 – Minimum Noise Requirements for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles would aim to improve the safety of vulnerable road users, especially the visually impaired, by making sounds cyclists and pedestrians can hear and recognize.

Most HEVs driving at low speeds make less noise than those that run on gasoline or diesel fuel. These quiet vehicles can pose a risk to:

• The visually impaired, who rely on vehicle noise to navigate safely on sidewalks and in parking lots.
• Pedestrians and cyclists, who may rely on vehicle noise to avoid a collision.

This is why Transport Canada may amend the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations to require HEVs to produce noise when travelling at a slow speed. In particular, to introduce the technical requirements for companies to follow, which the United States and the United Nations have recently adopted.

Note:

The Motor Vehicle Safety Act applies to manufacturers, importers, and their representative companies.

We want to hear from you

Transport Canada wants to hear from interested stakeholders and individual Canadians.

Support your comments with data, wherever possible. Identify:

• Any parts of your comments Transport Canada should not make public, as set out in sections 19 and 20 of the Access to Information Act;
• The reason why; and
• For what length of time.

Any sections you do not identify in this way may appear in any regulatory proposal Transport Canada may publish in the Canada Gazette.