Review of Noise-reduction Effect Based on Electric-vehicle Penetration Rate

The transition from conventional internal combustion engines using fossil fuels to electric vehicles (EVs) has become a policy trend in major countries worldwide, including South Korea. Within this policy shift, the expansion of EVs is expected to contribute positively to not only environmental improvement but also to road-traffic noise reduction. As the proportion of EVs increases in the future, changes in the overall road-traffic noise are expected to be significantly affected by the penetration rate of EVs, vehicle speed, and percentage of heavy vehicles. Therefore, to examine the changes in road-traffic noise based on the future penetration rate of EVs, various existing EV studies are reviewed. The noise-reduction effect of EVs is derived based on vehicle speed and percentage of heavy vehicles, and noise reduction is analyzed under different future penetration-rate scenarios. Results of noise-reduction analysis under different scenarios show that, as expected, the overall noise reduction increases with the penetration rate of EVs. Furthermore, noise reduction is greater when the vehicle speed and percentage of heavy vehicles decrease. The results of this study enable one to establish noise-reduction plans reflecting the penetration of EVs when evaluating road-traffic noise in future urban development projects.