Ward's Auto
Some highlights I found interesting:
Quote:
The “Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Sound Level of Motor Vehicles” runs 97, count ’em, 97 pages. Boiling it down to its essentials, the regulation says noise from cars, vans, buses and coaches with combustion engines must be decreased 4 decibels (dB), from 72 dB to 68 dB, during a phase-in period from 2016 to 2026.
Quote:
Numerous scientific and commercial sources’ measurements of decibel levels in terms of real-world sound vary to the point of near-arbitrariness. Many say the EC’s target of 68 dB approximates “normal conversation” (excluding, presumably, impassioned arguments at French, Italian or Greek coffee houses and sidewalk cafes), while a few estimate 72 dB is cranked out by a vacuum cleaner 3 ft. (0.9 m) away from the listener.
Quote:
The EC’s rationale for the crackdown largely is based on research by the World Health Organization, which concluded in 2011 that traffic noise was responsible for the loss of at least 1 million “disability-adjusted life years” annually in the European Union’s western countries, a figure inexplicably bumped up that same year to 1.6 million for the entire EU.
Quote:
Ivan Hodac, the former secretary-general of ACEA, the European automobile manufacturers group, was more blunt, saying meeting the EC’s noise limits would add manufacturing costs of €1,500 to €3,000 ($1,143 to $2,288) per truck and €300 ($228) to €600 ($228 to $457) per car.
“Today, basically no car manufacturer is making money in Europe,” Hodac told WardsAuto during the depths of the European recession in April 2012. “And the regulatory pressure is one of the main reasons.”
Some highlights I found interesting:
Quote:
The “Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Sound Level of Motor Vehicles” runs 97, count ’em, 97 pages. Boiling it down to its essentials, the regulation says noise from cars, vans, buses and coaches with combustion engines must be decreased 4 decibels (dB), from 72 dB to 68 dB, during a phase-in period from 2016 to 2026.
Quote:
Numerous scientific and commercial sources’ measurements of decibel levels in terms of real-world sound vary to the point of near-arbitrariness. Many say the EC’s target of 68 dB approximates “normal conversation” (excluding, presumably, impassioned arguments at French, Italian or Greek coffee houses and sidewalk cafes), while a few estimate 72 dB is cranked out by a vacuum cleaner 3 ft. (0.9 m) away from the listener.
Quote:
The EC’s rationale for the crackdown largely is based on research by the World Health Organization, which concluded in 2011 that traffic noise was responsible for the loss of at least 1 million “disability-adjusted life years” annually in the European Union’s western countries, a figure inexplicably bumped up that same year to 1.6 million for the entire EU.
Quote:
Ivan Hodac, the former secretary-general of ACEA, the European automobile manufacturers group, was more blunt, saying meeting the EC’s noise limits would add manufacturing costs of €1,500 to €3,000 ($1,143 to $2,288) per truck and €300 ($228) to €600 ($228 to $457) per car.
“Today, basically no car manufacturer is making money in Europe,” Hodac told WardsAuto during the depths of the European recession in April 2012. “And the regulatory pressure is one of the main reasons.”
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