Sounding out the electric vehicle engine – sounds of sustainability?

As electric engines increasingly replace combustion engines, the sonic environment is undergoing significant change. While most scholarship focuses on the technological and ecological benefits of electric vehicles, this paper explores the semiotic dimensions and potential environmental drawbacks of EV engine sound. Drawing on sound studies and semiotics, it identifies the communicative functions of EV sounds within branding culture, proposes a typology of three main sound variants, and examines their broader implications through a tripartite framework of ‘sounds of sustainability’. This approach highlights the need to consider sounds of EV engines not only technically, but also semiotically, culturally and environmentally.