Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of electric vehicles on the safety of blind and visually impaired pedestrians.

The Department for Transport commissioned research to assess the perceived safety risk from quiet electric vehicles to vision-impaired pedestrians in 2011. This research indicated that electric vehicles had sound levels similar to vehicles propelled by combustion engines above speeds of approximately 12 miles per hour but could be more difficult to detect at lower speeds.

Vehicle approval requirements were therefore introduced to mandate sound generators, known as Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems (AVAS), on new types of quiet electric and hybrid vehicles. AVAS has been required for new vehicles registered from 1 July 2021. The requirements ensure that vehicles that can be operated on electric power only will always produce a specified level of noise below 12 miles per hour and during reversing.