Would you buy an electric car if it sounded like a Ferrari?

IT'S the question that's on the mind of every motoring enthusiast. What noise should electric cars make?

This, I'm sure, has been occupying your every waking moment, and probably some of the ones where you haven't been awake. No, I wasn't aware it was a problem either but as it's big enough an issue to make it onto the BBC News, it's probably worth probing into further. Apparently, electric cars need noise so they don't silently run down pedestrians who didn't hear them coming.

Only they're not silent, are they? Anyone who's ever travelled on a Virgin Pendelino train with a hangover will know that electric motors are actually things that shriek when you put your foot down. The electric cars I've been in, thankfully, are a lot quieter, but in their bid to rid the roads of engine clatter they've eliminated the sounds that pedestrians, cyclists and guide dogs alike are trained to recognise. Electric cars, the experts have decided, need to make a noise to save all of these people from a nasty accident. But which?

Among the noises tried out by some academic types at Warwick University include what sounds like the two-stroke clatter of a misfiring moped, some soundbytes from a bad Fifties B-Movie and some ambient white noise I'm sure they've nicked from Brian Eno's back catalogue. But they're missing a valuable opportuity. If you've got make the noise, why not have some fun?

You could, for instance, get your car to play something by N-Dubz or the Black Eyed Peas, but then you run the risk of nobody wanting to travel with you out of sheer embarrassement.

Classical's out too, because while something like Elgar's Nimrod would sound splendid in isolation, I imagine a thousand works from history's greatest composers played simultaneously in a busy city centre would like someone trying to slowly kill you with a violin. So no.

Personally, I like the idea of taking advantage of accoustics nicked straight from the automotive world, and bringing engine noises which sound nice - no, I haven't gone mad - to our electric cars.

With everything from the chilling roar of a Porsche flat six, through the burbly woofle of a Rover V8 right up to the full-throated Pavarotti howl of an Italian supercar, there's plenty to choose from. Better still, you could just press a button on the dashboard if you get bored of it.

An electric car which sounds like an old Ferrari when you start it up? Admit it, you know you want one.