[rospaya]

Are their cities quieter as a result?

[magicalhippo]

Road noise isn't much better (perhaps even slightly worse, they're heavy). B

But in the local roads with 40 km/h (30 mph) or less, then yeah it's quite noticeable when an ICE comes along. The EVs you hardly hear.

However, the 80 km/h (50 mph) roads make a lot of noise, so you'll hear them far away.

So overall I'd say not really.

[Ferret7446]

IIRC a lot of noise comes from tire vibration/friction/resonance and wind. (Similarly, tire and brake dust account for a lot of pollution too.)

[PlunderBunny]

Not a Norwegian, but my perception is that electric vehicles might not alter the 'average' noise, but they do change the peak/annoying noise levels. An (approximately) continuous background sound of traffic is far more tolerable than revving ICE engines, backfiring etc.