Well I’m very pleased to read that George, though I have to say that I have never heard such a car making a noise like that, which bearing in mind the date of the legislation, I find rather surprising. Perhaps my hearing is worse than I thought !
So apart from the groaning what are the other two choices ? Rattling tappets or squeaky water pump perhaps. 
I wonder if it’s possible to make a substitution. Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries would be nice.
I think the irony is that we have gotten so used to the noise of ICEs that we now rely on the cacophony of combustion engines to prevent ourselves getting run over on the road! Meanwhile people in surrounding houses are spending a fortune on soundproofing and triple glazing to keep the noise out.
Perhaps EV owners should be made to have a man with a red flag preceding their progress?
Most modern cars these days come equipped with a camera to detect traffic markings and obstructions. Surely software must exist to recognise a pedestrian and could be made to emit a gentle beeping sound which increases in volume with proximity to the pedestrian if said pedestrian is in the traffic lane?
This would be a driving assist system that may well save a life.
As an aside, when I put my EV into “go mode”, it does make a gentle sound that reduces with speed.
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Its part of Teslas lidar system with varying results at present. The point is the drivers dont want to run into people (excusing the odd psychopath) so people just like the old days should stop look and listen before stepping off pavements extra. Nowadays it seems people want lawyers to take responsiblity for their actions rather than themselves.
Now a reversing out of a car parking space EV is a different matter, they should all without exception be fitted with reversing bleepers.
Our Honda does similar and emits a sound reminiscent of a choir of angels when reversing.
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Perhaps it’s because it’s a quadricycle rather than a car technically so avoids the rules but my Citroen Ami is absolutely silent, it doesn’t emit the ‘hum’ that electric cars generally do which I had always assumed was for safety purposes since they don’t really need to make noise. Given the thing only goes 45 max it’s always driving slowly lol, so I was surprised there’s no noise at all. Ironically it’s the only bit that doesn’t make noise, from inside it sounds like you’re in the engine compartment of a 747, but from outside nothing.
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Possibly a little exageration? If its bad maybe some sound deadening pads will help, car audio places usually have that service if you cant do it yourself.
I hadn’t realised quite how much I relied on hearing to track vehicles in town until we had a weekend in Rye some weeks ago. Lots of silent electric vehicles being driven in the town, and just standing on the edge of the pavement (not in the road) I had that very unpleasant experience of discovering something large had crept up behind me. This happened a couple of times.
There had been talk of legislation requiring a warning sounder to be fitted some years ago, but that came to nothing it seems.
It looks like the UK introduced legislation for new EVs to include low speed warning sounds at exactly the same time as the EU prior to formally leaving the EU…and it was to apply to hybrids from 2021. Did this not in fact take place?
I share your apprehension.
It seemed to me blindingly obvious that you were safe enough until stepping off the pavement designated for pedestrians onto the road designated for cars in which case application of The Highway Code is advised….
…. until I made an extremely rare visit to our local city of Toulouse where I had a disturbing close encounter with a high speed electric scooter.
Whilst I approve the use of these modes of transport in favour of noisy and smelly ICE mopeds or scooters, I do think their use should be restricted to the road. In fact, it would be a good idea to have a separate lane for electric scooters and cyclists et al.
Oh dear, I seem to have slipped back to the biking thread!
No, not as far as I can get tell.
Related to above, these were cars, being driven under 20mph, and without the tyre noise generated at higher speeds, quite inaudible. I was in no danger, but it’s an unpleasant shock to discover something like that right beside you with no warning.
I understood that but I was making the point that being put in danger by an electric scooter whilst still on the pavement was an even bigger shock.
Are these things actually legal on a pavement.
Probably not, but I’m not absolutely certain.
Happened to me walking the dog through a local village along the middle of a quiet narrow road (no pavements) with no traffic. Suddenly there was a car right behind and then alongside me. Obviously a local setting out from home, oblivious to the fact that her car made so little noise that I had no idea whatsoever she was there.
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I just googled “Citroen ami drive video” and the first video that came up literally called a chapter of the video “Engine sound as “airplane take off” :)” so it’s not only me who thinks that 
This video is obviously very muffled compared to the actual sound as they presumably don’t have good mics set up, but it gives an idea…
Looking at how boxy some of the EV compact SUVs are, I’d imagine that they generate a fair bit of wind noise at highway speeds.
Just to throw fuel on the fire, I love the sound of the roar a good old V8 or bigger.Those are real cars, not tin boxes powered by batteries that you can’t hear coming and cost more to buy than most people will ever be able to afford.
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I too like the sound of certain kinds of engines, but wouldn’t want all cars everywhere to make that much noise. 
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Whilst it was a surprise the driver didnt want to hurt you so you are hear to tell the story.
Cost will come down and V8’s will become museum pieces. The sound can be copied and replayed and I bet that does become popular later on.
I do appreciate you were exercising a sense of humour when you posted that comment BUT there is a serious side to the EV/ICE debate (apart from simply trying to save the planet, stopping pollution of the environment and getting rid of noise pollution).
“Some 80% of the pollution we breathe in urban areas is caused by traffic”.
“It is estimated that there are around 40,000 excess deaths every year as a result of air pollution. Many of these are older people, but some of them are children. The effects of air pollution on children’s physical development continue throughout their life, with a cost to the NHS estimated at £20 billion.”
Edit: I should have said these figures apply to UK not France but nevertheless are a good example of what we are up against.