VDV e-bus sound installed on a bus for the first time

At the VDV electric bus conference and trade fair ElekBu, the e-bus sound launched by the VDV, which is to be heard uniformly on German roads in future, has been implemented in a new e-bus for the first time today and played out via the AVAS loudspeakers.

The winning sound was chosen in May 2022, following the student competition launched in late 2021 in cooperation with the FOAM Institute Berlin. 

The EU had prescribed an AVAS (Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System) for all electric vehicles and subsequently further developed requirements for vehicle noise.

German e-bus sound installed for the first time

“We are now standing here for the first time in front of an e-bus equipped with the future industry standard sound. With this, we can successfully conclude the student competition ‘Soundscape’ and now go into the very concrete hardware implementation with the manufacturers and the transport companies. As an industry association, we are very pleased about the lively interest in the VDV e-bus sound,” says VDV Vice President Werner Overkamp.

Rudi Kuchta from the VDV Industry Forum and Senior Vice President at MAN Truck & Bus, comments: “It is always good when qualified and coordinated standards are developed from within an industry. That is good for the customer and also with a view to costs. At the same time, the manufacturers still have enough leeway to further develop this standard, for example, depending on location, region, speed and operating situation.”

“Our joint congratulations go to the winner Lukas Esser, the duo Alec Duhl and Peter Wehmann, and Bastian Eberhard. Not only did they convince the jury – consisting of numerous associations, companies and organisations – of their sound ideas, but they also completely and convincingly fulfilled the specified conditions and thus prevailed in a broader field of participants from all over Germany. An entire industry thanks us for this impulse”, said Rudi Kuchta, VDV Industry Forum Chairman, VDV Vice President Werner Overkamp and Professor Sebastian Waschulewski from the FOAM Institute Berlin.