I can see his pointy little ears poking through the living room window by the time I roll up. Before I can see the house, before he even sleepily raises himself from his dog bed, my boy Kickflip knows I'm coming. And it's all thanks to the space-ship hum of my Chevy Blazer EV.
I'm sure you've heard it, or something similar, when a neighbor's hybrid or EV drives by. Since 2016, the feds have required all EVs and hybrids to emit a pedestrian warning noise when traveling below 18.6 mph, ensuring that your local vision-impaired jogger isn't surprised by a 5,000-pound car moving in complete silence. Above that speed, the tire roar of the car is loud enough to alert you on your own, the thinking goes.
Each brand uses a slightly different approach, with Tesla's warning sound being the most cartoonish and space-ship-like to my ears, and some sounding closer to the unsexy, platonic ideal warning sound: pink noise. Yet most stick to the same basic approach, adopting the soundtrack of an idling hoverboard or a vacuum cleaner from the year 3000. Listen to a Hyundai or a Toyota or a Honda or a Chevy drive by on electric power alone, and you'd be hard-pressed to hear the difference.
View Price on AmazonBut you're using human ears. For Flip, with his super-powered and super-cute ears, the job is easier. It's not news that dogs can separate out specific vehicle noises; my friend's St. Bernard mix knows when his owner's Lexus LC500 is coming around the bend, as the car makes a particular V-8 thrum that's hard to miss. Yet even Clifford's super-size ears likely couldn't tell the difference between the boring four-cylinder in your Mazda CX-5 and the even-more-boring four-cylinder in your neighbor's Hyundai Tucson. In the EV world, though, the notes come through clearer. And the result is that my dog has become a bona fide Chevy EV enthusiast.
When he hears my Blazer EV round the corner, pull a 3-point turn in the neighbor's driveway, and slow to a stop, it's a signal that the best thing possible is about to happen: His best friend is coming home. Cue the wagging tail, the perching on the couch to see out the window, and the excited run to the door. Most of his life is between these walls and around these blocks; to unlock anything better, he needs me home, with all of the parmesan cheese and dog-park visits that entails.
But there's another thing you need to know about dogs: They are extremely bad at generalizing. In my efforts to train my high-energy, year-and-a-half-old Husky mutt, I have learned this the hard way. Just because they know what "heel" means in the back yard doesn't mean they'll understand it on the walk. So while Flip knows that the approach of a Blazer EV means "dad's home," it's a far more baffling experience when we hear the sound together on a walk.
All Chevy EVs, and most EVs from the greater General Motors family, make the same pedestrian-alert sound. It's even the same on the badge-engineered Honda Prologue. And because I live in coastal Southern California, you can't walk too far without hearing an Equinox EV or a Prologue bopping about.
When that happens, without fail, Flip snaps to attention, fixes his eyes on the emitting offender, and stares at it with the intensity of a film major watching Inception while stoned. This is sometimes paired with tail-wagging, excited pulling, or over-the-shoulder looks at me in excitement. "Dad's coming home," his little peanut brain thinks, as he sits two feet from me.
Source: insideevs.com
