Keeping AM Radio in EVs Would Come at a Hefty Price, Report Suggests
Should new electric vehicles continue to offer AM radio? For the past couple of years, electromagnetic interference (EMI) affecting radio receivers has raised questions about the necessity to maintain the service, and a recent report is shedding new light on this issue.
According to researchers at the Center for Automotive Research in the U.S., which has ties with General Motors and Ford, reducing EMI generated by these vehicles in order to preserve AM radio quality would cost the industry as much as $3.8 billion USD ($5.2 billion CAD) over the next seven years.
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Solutions to mitigate the problem include shielding radio cables, installing interference filters, developing active noise cancellation systems and revising the placement of certain components. There’s a cost to that, of course, not to mention the extra weight that could possibly limit battery range.
"These costs can be avoided by deleting analog AM radio from vehicles and providing consumers with alternative products for in-vehicle audio content," the report suggests. Such alternatives include digital AM and FM radio, streaming and satellite services.
The U.S. Congress has been working for months on a bill that would force automakers to keep AM radio as standard equipment in their new vehicles, mainly EVs, as they believe it’s an essential service in large-scale emergency situations. The bill has been steadily gaining support and appears likely to turn into a law.
But now that we have a better idea of the related costs, it’s easier to understand the opposition by automakers, especially Ford and GM which are currently scaling back or pushing back their EV investments.
BMW, Mazda, Polestar, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo have all decided not to offer broadcast AM radio in their new EVs. Ford was planning to do the same starting in 2024 but changed its mind after speaking with lawmakers about the importance of the service as a part of the emergency alert system.