An increasing number of people are experiencing motion sickness in electric cars, but why is this happening? Scientists are trying to find an acceptable explanation as to why people feel more motion sick riding in an EV than in a traditional petrol or diesel car. For your information, in 2024, 22% of new car sales worldwide were electric vehicles, compared with 18% in 2023.

First of all, getting sick in an EV has nothing to do with the electromagnetic field generated by the traction battery and high-voltage electronics. Sure, it’s much more potent than in a traditional car with a combustion engine, but it’s still far too low in intensity to have any kind of effect on your well-being, even after prolonged exposure.

Our brain needs adaptation

Some PhD students studying the phenomenon at France’s Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard have discovered that getting sick in an EV can be attributed to a lack of previous experience.

“When traveling in a combustion car, we’re used to the typical engine noises and vibrations, the torque, the braking… Yet, traveling in an EV for the first time is a new motion environment for the brain, which needs adaptation.”

No audible and visibel clues

An electric car will not provide an audible cue to tell when the vehicle is accelerating. As a result, the motion will take your senses by surprise and make you feel unwell. The lack of noise combined with EV’s strong surge of acceleration can accentuate car sickness symptoms.

Regenerative braking, which occurs when you lift off the accelerator pedal and the vehicle slows down using its electric motors – the so-called ‘one-pedal-driving’ – may also contribute to the unpleasantness that some occupants feel.

What is 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.

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 actually driving a car don’t tend to experience symptoms. They know what is coming.

Regeneration

In a 2024 study involving 16 participants prone to motion sickness, a strong correlation between regen braking and their level of nausea was drawn. The more powerful the regeneration, the higher the chance it had of making occupants feel sick.

So, the problem is the lack of visual and sensory cues to inform occupants about what the car is doing or what it’s about to do. A solution could be to provide artificial signals, whether visual, audible, or even vibrational cues, to help alleviate the symptoms of those affected.

Several research papers have suggested that using visual signals, such as interactive screens and ambient lighting, or vibrational cues to allow a passenger’s brain to anticipate motion changes, could alleviate the lurching feeling in the back of an electric cab.