mobile-menu-icon
GM Authority

EV AM Radio Integration Will Cost Billons, Study Finds

A new study by the Center for Automotive Research indicates the shielding and filtering needed to prevent the electromagnetic field of EV systems from interfering with analog AM radio signals could cost billions of dollars to implement.

As reported by CarGroup, the study was conducted because of political plans to require automakers to include AM radio equipment in their EV models to receive emergency broadcasts.

The center console of a Buick EV in China, where an AM radio would be mounted.

Over the opposition of car companies, a bipartisan bill entitled the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act passed the House this summer before moving on for Senate approval. The bill, according to a Congressional Budget Office summary, requires “that AM broadcast stations be accessible in all passenger motor vehicles manufactured in, imported into, or shipped within the United States.”

The bill’s goal is to ensure U.S. citizens can tune in to crucial informational broadcasts, which are typically made on the AM frequency, during emergencies, natural disasters, and other dangerous situations. Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) introduced the bill.

Cruz remarked AM radio “reliably gets important information to the public” and added that AM frequencies aid free speech and are “vital to free expression and viewpoint diversity” because of the low barriers to broadcast entry.

The 33 inch infotainment screen and gauge cluster of the Lyriq EV.

Automakers argued the electromagnetic interference generated by EV batteries will distort or block AM radio signals, and the new study appears to support this contention. The Center for Automotive Research quoted industry figures indicating a basic materials cost per vehicle of $15 to $20 for filtering and $35 to $50 for shielding, or $50 to $70 in total.

However, research, development, and testing of the systems needed to prevent AM radio band distortion would add immensely to these costs. The burden would fall particularly on mainstream automakers such as GM and Ford, which need to keep costs as low as possible in order to afford transitioning their vehicle lineups to EVs.

The GM EV lineup.

The report projects extra costs to automakers from an AM radio shielding program to add up to $3.8 billion by 2030. The shielding also adds somewhat to EV weight, thus potentially shaving a few miles off range, already a critical component in persuading people to buy an electric vehicle model.

Finally, the filtering and shielding methods do not completely remove interference from AM band signals, meaning the audio quality will be poorer than an ICE vehicle despite the expensive mitigation systems. The study concludes that a better approach is “deleting analog AM radio from vehicles and providing consumers with alternative products for in-vehicle audio content.”

The GM logo at the Renaissance Center.

Meanwhile, GM cross-town rival Ford decided to include AM radio in all of its 2024 vehicle models in both its Ford and Lincoln lineups. Simultaneously, a GM representative said the automaker has no current plans to delete AM radio from its vehicles, but that it was impossible to comment on the inclusion of AM radio in future vehicles.

Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM-related political news, GM-related technology news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.

Subscribe to GM Authority

For around-the-clock GM news coverage

We'll send you one email per day with the latest GM news. It's totally free.

Comments

  1. Wait what? Taxpayers are supposed to spend billions of dollars paying for new road signs and public announcements and marketing campaigns and changing all the infrastructure of the entire nation from AM because automakers don’t want to build their cars “good” to begin with?

    Reply
    1. Taxpayers don’t have to do a thing. As technology evolves, some older systems are obviated. This is one example. If I were a carmaker, I’d include a handheld portable AM radio with every car purchase.

      Reply
  2. I suspect the problem is the motors are using pulse width modulation for the drive. So we have something running in the KW range at the same frequency range as AM. Heck the car IS an AM radio transmitter, just without the antenna. It is going to bleed everywhere. I don’t listen to AM, but I’ll try to run an experiment next time I’m at a light near an EV starting to move. The motor has to be active for it to be a transmitter. ECM motors are all over the place now, (HVAC blowers as an example) and they go to some trouble to shield. Usually the motor electronics are in a steel case behind the actual motor and they ground the case. I’ve heard of situations where more is required.

    Reply
  3. Wouldn’t it make more sense to digitize AM radio for EVs so when you listen to AM you’re actually using a free streaming service that picks up the local analog signals and passes them to the vehicle? No shielding necessary. I just saved you billions.

    Reply
    1. I’m not an expert or anything but I think AM will continue to work when things like the the ability to stream or the internet goes down. So I don’t think that would work.

      Reply
      1. When has the internet gone down? I don’t recall a time I haven’t been able to use a cellular network even in an emergency?

        Reply
  4. I call bull. If the GM EV1 had AM radio, I’m sure these can too. Just seams like a paid survey to try and weasel out another 5¢ in the radio circuit. You can add 12 camera views that nobody uses but won’t add a 5¢ component??? You would probably save more by firing the bean counter who is studying this.

    Reply
    1. Probably not. EV1 likely was not using such a high frequency, devices were very expensive back then that could do that. Now with GaN it is easy. EV1 did not have the power levels that today’s do either.

      Reply
  5. So what does the EMF do to the drivers and passengers, especially children, infants, sitting in the vehicle for possibly hours everyday ?

    Reply
    1. Relatively low frequency, 100KHz to around 1MHz. It is the high MHz/GHz bands that cause tissue damage. Cell phones are pretty low power, but still can be a concern and they are up in these bands.

      Reply
  6. I don’t want Automakers to cease to put AM Radios in their vehicles.
    I love AM Radio.
    I am not very fond of FM Radio.
    I love receiving distant AM and Shortwave signals during the nighttime hours, when the ionosphere has opened up.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Cancel