We are keen to switch to electric, but my wife has experienced motion sickness whenever she travels in an EV (two Kia models). I think that this is due to regenerative braking. Is this a common phenomenon, and are there any manufacturers who have a better record for dealing with this? – Seán R, Co Limerick
We don’t know for certain if electric cars are actually, scientifically, more likely to make people car sick than a conventional car.
A professor at the University of Pittsburgh has called the available data on the subject “sketchy” but there was a study carried out a couple of years ago by the Université De Technologie De Belfort-Montbeliard in France which found that, whether or not the actual number of cases is higher for EVs, there are almost certainly some reasons why electric cars might trigger car sickness.
In short, we’ve become used to petrol and diesel cars, and now electric cars have come along and we’re not used to them yet, and that makes them harder for those prone to car sickness to deal with.
Braking certainly seems to be part of the issue. This is partially down to how an EV’s regenerative braking is set up. As soon as the driver’s foot comes off the accelerator pedal, the car can slow down quite sharply.
RM Block
Previously our vestibular system – the combination of nerves, inner ear, and more that helps us locate our bodies relative to the world around us – was used to a fraction of a second pause while the driver moved their feet from the accelerator to the brake.
With “one-pedal” braking systems, that pause can be eliminated almost entirely, and surprisingly sharp “braking” can occur straight away as the car uses its electric motor as, effectively, a traction brake (while also using it to regenerate power that can be fed to the battery, like a dynamo).
The good news is that things don’t have to be this way. Many electric cars – albeit not all – will have adjustable regenerative braking which can be set up from sharp to none at all and many points in between.
The Peugeot E-208 GTi, which has regenerative braking that can be set up to be very gentle, is actually quite like the sort of engine braking with which our vestibular systems are more familiar, so it feels far more natural.
Many other cars will be similarly capable, so it might just be a case of trying out a few on test drives to arrive at one you both feel comfortable with.
There are other potential pitfalls when it comes to EVs and car sickness. The lack of noise from the engine is, according to the French study, a crucial factor. Over the decades of combustion engine driving, our vestibular systems have adjusted to subconsciously listening to what the engine of a car is doing and using that as an audible cue of what’s going to happen next.
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Without the engine sound, that cue is gone, and so our bodies are being taken by surprise by the subsequent movement or change of direction, and that can be a problem for anyone prone to motion sickness. Being prepared for a movement is key to fighting motion sickness, and it’s why it’s very rare for a driver to become motion sick – because the driver usually knows what’s going to happen next.
Another potential cause of car sickness with EVs is the electromagnetic field given off by the car’s battery and motors. We know from other studies that these fields aren’t strong enough to present any danger in a health sense, but there’s potential for them to trigger inner ear issues that cause motion sickness, while the faint vibrations given off by electric devices which have a current running through them – try lightly resting your fingertips on a metal-bodied laptop while it’s charging to see what that’s like – might also be an issue.
The sudden torque delivery of electric cars can also be problematic, as the “step-off” performance of most EVs is far, far sharper than that of a combustion engine.
A combustion engine needs time, revs, and space to produce its highest power outputs. An EV is at its most potent at 1rpm, hence the sudden acceleration from standstill that even relatively humble EVs can produce, and which even for those of us hardened to high performance can find discombobulating.
For instance, I swore that the Audi e-Tron GT RS accelerated so hard from a standing start that I could feel the blood draining out of my toes.
Thankfully, cars are developing and changing, and we’re now much more likely to come across electric motors that are tuned to deliver their power and torque more progressively, more in the manner of a petrol engine. Equally, most EVs will have an “eco” driving setting that reduces the power of the motor at low speeds, which can smooth out that initial sudden power deployment.
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Passengers sitting in the rear seats will likely have a worse time than those in the front, which has always been the case for people prone to car sickness, but in EVs that is exacerbated by the fact that electric cars are, by and large, much heavier than their combustion counterparts. That heaviness means that the suspension has to be tuned to cope with the weight and that tuning can lead to unpleasant movements such as a “head-toss” sensation when driving over sharp bumps or speed ramps.
As with conventional motion sickness, there are some things you can do to ameliorate the worst effects of EV car sickness.
Try to eat relatively light before travelling, and make sure you’re hydrated (having some cold water in the car to sip on can also help). Don’t look down at a book or your phone – keep your eyes up and looking out of the car so that you can see the horizon, which allows your vestibular system to keep a better check on your position relative to the car and the world outside. Crack open a window for some fresh air, or turn an air vent on a cool setting towards your face, and sit as upright as you can, with your head held high.
Given enough time, we’ll all adapt to electric cars and their wily ways, and the potential for car sickness will fall. Human beings are nothing if not adaptable, after all. There will always be a certain cohort of individuals, those who are very sensitive to motion and movement, for whom travelling in a car – any car – will always be an issue, but for most of us these problems will likely fade away given more time and more experience with electric cars.
