Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Minimum Sound Requirements for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles

This final rule amends the test procedure in section S6.7.3 of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 141, Minimum Sound Requirements for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles, as proposed in the September 17, 2019, notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), to specify the single point in time that should be used when determining one-third octave band levels of ambient noise measurements used in compliance tests. The agency has chosen not to adopt the remaining portions of the NPRM, including a proposal which would have allowed manufactures of hybrid and electric vehicles (HEVs) to install a number of driver- selectable pedestrian alert sounds in each HEV they manufacture. The driver-selectable alert sounds proposal is not being adopted because of a lack of supporting data. In addition, this final rule acknowledges that a proposed technical change included in the September 17, 2019, NPRM to correct two dates in NHTSA's phase-in reporting requirements for FMVSS No. 141 is no longer needed. That change was addressed previously by the agency's September 1, 2020, interim final rule that extended the FMVSS No. 141 compliance deadline and phase-in dates by six months. The interim final rule included adjustments to NHTSA's reporting dates, superseding the need for the proposed corrections.