Chevrolet announced it is recalling early examples of the Equinox EV…for being too quiet. Yes, that’s a legit issue for some EVs.
When you’re an automaker building a new vehicle, it has to conform to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) to go on sale. The FMVSS sets the requirements for virtually everything around a car’s design, including how much noise electric vehicles need to make when moving at slow speeds. According to documents General Motors submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), though, the most 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EVs fail to meet that requirement — in other words, they are legally too quiet for pedestrians to hear when driving around at speeds below 6.2 mph.
According to the recall report, an incorrect software calibration is to blame. Specifically, the software in up to 23,700 Equinox EVs could allow “too much variation in volume to consistently meet relative volume changes required [by FMVSS].” Pedestrians may not be able to determine through sound whether an approaching Equinox EV is speeding up or slowing down, and as such may be at greater risk of injury.
GM began investigating the issue on Setember 9, following notification from NHTSA.
The automaker says it’s currently working on a fix
At the moment, there’s no actual fix for the 2024 Equinox EV models that are impacted by the recall. However, 2025 models use a different strategy for noise generation and a different calibration for the body control module (BCM). A fix could incorporate that strategy into the older cars through a software update, but we’ll have to wait for more information.
Dealers were already notified of the issue on September 25. Chevy says it will have a remedy notification ready by November 10, so owners should be able to go in after that date to have the fix applied. In the meantime, owners can check the NHTSA recall website for more information and can still drive their vehicles. That said, it may be a good idea to take some extra care in built-up areas around pedestrians, just in case.
