AVAS

Acoustic vehicle alerting system: the sound EU law requires from electric and hybrid cars up to about 20 km/h and when reversing.

Explained in

eMobility and EV basics · Stop 03How does an electric motor drive the wheels?Battery, inverter, motor, one fixed gear: the short path from stored energy to turning wheels, and why electric cars have to make a sound at low speed.

Because an electric drive is so quiet at low speed, the EU requires an acoustic vehicle alerting system, AVAS. It must generate a sound from start up to about 20 km/h and when reversing, so that pedestrians, especially blind and visually impaired people, notice the car. AVAS has been mandatory for all new hybrid and electric cars since 1 July 2021.

From “A sound by law”, stop 03

Also in

  1. eMobility and EV basics · Stop 09One electric car, fully understoodThe day in eight moments
  1. InverterPower electronics that turn the battery's direct current into alternating current for the motor, and back when the car regenerates.
  2. Power electronicsSemiconductor circuits that convert and control electrical energy: in the car mainly the inverter for the motor, in a DC charger the rectifier and the DC/DC converter.
  1. EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) No 540/2014 on the sound level of motor vehicles, Article 8 and Annex VIII (AVAS). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2014/540/oj. Checked 09 Oct 2026. © European Union, reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.