[PhotonMiles]

I'm wondering if anyone with XC40 Recharges are experiencing any sensations of ear pain/pressure from boomy rumble & road noise in the car? Basically is the car painfully bass-y on rougher roads?

This is a huge problem in my Tesla Y and apparently also the Audi E-Tron & Mercedes EQC, and I'm wondering if the XC40 Recharge suffers as well. See this thread at the Tesla forums:

Ear pain/Pressure help

I guess it has something to do with the engineering choices for dialing in the "noise, vibration, harshness" characteristics of EVs with subframes that are hard-bolted to the main body without any bushings or buffers of some kind. The road noise is passed straight into the frame which starts resonating like a subwoofer.

"Simulating and Optimizing the Dynamic Chassis Forces of the Audi E-Tron"

"Reduction of Body Boom by Optimizing the Dynamic Axle Forces"

The noise is often super-low frequency, around 35Hz or so, which means you often "feel" it more than you hear it. In the Model Y the noise can be 95-100dB at even slow speeds! NOT good!

So at this point I'm wondering if this is inherent in all current SUV/crossover-style EVs or if the XC40 Recharge is better in this regard.

If anyone wants to measure it with a decibel meter or an app on a phone, be sure to use the dBC scale which detects low frequencies better than dBA scale.

 

[SeattleCat]

Don’t open the rear windows at high speed. I thought the waves were going to tear the car apart. Front windows are fine as is the road noise. Occasionally if you find concrete and you are traveling at just the right speed to set up standing waves in the car it can be annoying. But nothing like the rear windows being open.