At 60 MPH level cruse, the engine will run all the time. The average power is too high to let the engine stop, so it will have to run non-stop at intermediate power levels.

I imagine the same sort of experience happened when we switched over from horses, although I doubt anyone ever mourned the loss of frequent horse farts or tried to emulate them in automobiles. Oh wait, they did, with ICEs. Apparentely ICEs were just temporary noise maker devices designed to wean us off of horse sounds. I think we’re ready to move on now.

As quiet as possible at all times is my preference. I’ll put in a CD of farting horses if I ever grow nostalgic for fueled ICE noise (don’t hold your breath ).

As for pedestrians, sight works, and for blind folks, all vehicles alreday come with a built in sound warning device called a horn.

On top of this, most current hybrids are parallel systems and the engine directly drives the wheels so the engine HAS to follow the pedal.

The Volt is different, the engine as you well know is not attached to the wheels. I would like to see the engine run at set ’sweet spots’ in it’s range for maximum efficency. The engine would likely move up or down to the spots in a controlled manner to promote smoothness.

I see no reason why if the sound is perceptable the engine couldn’t drift from a ‘low’ spot to a ‘medium’ spot on acccelleration though.

The sound that we associate with an engine is basically the sound of the fuel being burned and the resulting high pressure air rushing from the exhaust.

Spinning the engine without fuel would not simulate the sound.

I honestly think they are working on making the genset so quiet that sound becomes a non-issue.

Disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about how gasoline ICEs or how generator-engine interactions work.

I lean toward making the Volt as close to other cars as possible from a driver perspective. You wouldn’t want to switch to a yoke from a steering wheel, or, put the key start in the center console (well Saab does, but, they’re ‘made from jets’. )

The car needs to be a car. It needs to work like other cars and be so little different that a driver can easily switch from a Toyota to a Chevy and not have to re-learn how to drive.

So just in case someone is taking a poll, I vote that the ICE operates as close to ‘normal’ (meaning RPM follows throttle position) like any other car. If this means that I get less MPG, then, that’s ok. It also means that my wife won’t be freaked out by it.

I won’t be using the ICE anyway. After 100k miles the gas engine will still be brand new!

Make mine Caddy white pearl please

(=