Illustration: The Guardian/Charles Desmarais
With electric cars skyrocketing in popularity around the world – in 2024, 22% of new car sales worldwide were electric vehicles, compared with 18% in 2023 – a growing body of studies and an increasing number of people have found that they feel more motion sick riding in EVs than in traditional petrol or diesel cars. Anecdotes of feeling sick in the passenger or back seat of electric cars litter social media, as do questions from wary prospective buyers.
There is a scientific explanation behind why a person might feel more sick in an EV, though, according to multiple academic studies.
“Greater sickness in EVs can be attributed to a lack of previous experience, as both a driver and as a passenger, where the brain lacks accuracy in estimating the motion forces because it relies on previous experience in other types of cars,” said William Emond, a PhD student researching car sickness at the Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard in France.
Though EVs are becoming more popular, combustion cars still dominate. Riders have a longer history with gas cars and so have had more time to adapt to their specific cues. If a person has spent most of their life driving a combustion engine car, their brain anticipates acceleration after the rev of the engine, a warning that they are about to experience a change in speed. In a battery-powered car, the electric motor makes no such noises.
In addition to general unfamiliarity, research has found links between specific features common to electric vehicles and motion sickness. One 2024 study concluded that there were strong correlations between motion sickness severity and the seat vibrations of electric vehicles, while a 2020 study found that the lack of engine sound in an EV might be a major contributing factor to increased feelings of carsickness.
“If we are accustomed to traveling in non-EVs, we are used to understanding the car’s motion based on signals such as engine revs, engine vibrations, torque, etc. Yet, traveling in an EV for the first time is a new motion environment for the brain, which needs adaptation,” Emond explains.
Additionally, the regenerative braking technology used in EVs – where the motor converts the slowing car’s kinetic energy into electricity that then is stored in the battery – results in low-frequency deceleration, meaning that the vehicle slows down gradually and steadily, over a relatively longer period, rather than rapidly or in quick pulses. Such low-frequency deceleration tends to be associated with higher levels of motion sickness.
A 2024 study suggested the feature acted as one of the main triggers of motion sickness in electric vehicles. The study’s authors wrote: “Our results confirmed that higher levels of RB [regenerative braking] can induce MS [motion sickness].”
Motion sickness is thought to be caused by a mismatch between various sensory signals the brain simultaneously receives about the body’s movement. Specifically, it happens when the inner ear, which helps control balance, the eyes, and the body send conflicting information to the brain.
“Better knowledge on self-motion allows us to anticipate motion forces, which is crucial for motion sickness. Yet, when the motion forces as estimated or anticipated by the brain differ from what actually is experienced, then the brain interprets this ‘neural mismatch’ as a situation of conflict,” Emond said. “If this conflict persists over time, it may surpass a threshold for triggering autonomic reactions of the body such as symptoms apparent to ‘motion sickness’.”
Being able to anticipate the movement of a vehicle appears to be integral to the experience of motion sickness, which is why people who are driving a car don’t tend to experience symptoms. They know what is coming.
The interplay between anticipation of motion and actual motion experienced may be why EVs are associated with worse motion sickness, as these vehicles provide fewer clues regarding upcoming movements.
“When discovering a new motion environment, the brain needs to habituate because there is no knowledge of previous experience in such a context. This is, for example, why almost everyone becomes sick in zero-gravity environments,” Emond says.
As EV ownership continues to increase, some researchers are already looking into a solution for the cars’ specific type of nausea. Several research papers have suggested that motion sickness in autonomous EVs could be treated by using visual signals, such as interactive screens and ambient lighting, or vibrational cues to allow a passenger’s brain to anticipate motion changes, alleviating the lurching feeling in the back of an electric taxi.