Fake engine sound for Tesla: every way to get one

Does a Tesla have an engine sound?

Not the sound of a combustion engine. A Tesla is not silent: its electric motors make a whine whose pitch rises with speed, and you hear the tires and the wind. Outside, at low speed, it also plays a pedestrian warning sound so that people nearby hear it coming, and the Boombox plays clips when parked. But no setting makes it sound like a combustion car while you drive.

The motor's whine is one smooth, rising note: no revs that climb and drop, no gear changes, no crackle when you lift off. That is the soundtrack many drivers miss, and what a fake engine sound (also called a synthetic or artificial engine sound) brings back.

The ways to make a Tesla sound like a gas car

• The Boombox: it plays your own sound clips through the external speaker, but only while the car is in Park, and a clip of an engine idling stays a fixed recording. Fun for a parking lot, not for driving. See Boombox vs engine sound.
• Aftermarket sound kits: sound generators or speakers fitted under the car, controlled by an app. They are heard outside the car, cost from several hundred to over a thousand euros, and need to be installed.
• Phone apps over Bluetooth: the phone synthesizes an engine from its GPS or motion sensors and sends it to the car's audio over Bluetooth. Bluetooth audio adds a noticeable delay, so the engine reacts after you do.
• TesRev: a web page that the Tesla's own browser opens. The car plays the engine through its cabin speakers, with no Bluetooth link in between; your phone in a holder can send it your accelerations as they happen. Nothing to buy, nothing to install, nothing connected to the car.

What makes a fake engine sound convincing

A recording played louder or faster does not sound like an engine for long. What makes the difference is behaviour: the revs must rise with the accelerator, the gearbox must shift at the right moment, the sound must change between load and lift-off, and all of it must happen without lag.

TesRev synthesizes each engine in real time from its combustion pulses, exhaust pipes and intake, so a V8 burbles unevenly and a V10 howls. An automatic gearbox decides when to shift, with kickdown when you press hard, a throttle blip on each downshift and pops and bangs on the tuned engines. It uses your Tesla's mass, power and drag to turn each acceleration into engine load: a calm drive stays at low revs, a hard launch runs to the rev limiter. More on this in gear shift sound for Tesla.

17 engines to choose from

An American V8, an Italian V10, a V12, a flat-plane V8, a rotary, a Formula 1 V10, a tuned turbo inline-6 and, if you would rather not pretend to burn fuel, futuristic sounds. Every engine has a 20-second clip on the engines page.

Inside or outside?

TesRev plays inside the car only, for the people in it: it does not use the external speaker, so it never replaces the pedestrian warning sound and does not disturb the street. Keep the volume at a level where you can still hear what is around you.

It works on the Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X, with or without Premium Connectivity (how). Setting it up takes a minute: see the setup guide.