What is Regenerative Braking and How to Use It?

As car technologies continue to move forward, regenerative braking, while not new, is something that not many people know about. So, what is regenerative braking exactly?

Regenerative braking allows the vehicle to utilize wasted energy during the braking sequence. The power from the spinning wheel of your car is used to reverse the electricity directly from the electric motors back to the battery. The driver can activate the electric regeneration by simply lifting your foot from the accelerator to the coast or braking the car by pressing the brake pedal. 

The system first appeared in 1967, when AMC debuted the AMC Amitron concept car to showcase their vision for the future with electric vehicle. However, regenerative braking wasn’t put  into commercial production passenger vehicle until Toyota finally introduced the Prius in the 1990s. Not only that, regenerative braking has been beneficial in motor racing. Thus making them more efficient, cleaner but also faster as well. Formula 1 teams have been using a version of regenerative braking called KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) since the 2009. With the system continuing development later become an essential part of many motor racing series as well as translating them to the current road car technology that we have at the moment. 

Even though regenerative braking has a different construction than standard friction brakes that we usually see on ordinary gas-powered vehicles. However, regenerative braking still serves to stop the car like usual. While standard braking wastes a lot of energy, regenerative braking preserves the power to further utilize the car’s performance in the long run. 

Thus, regenerative braking is particularly useful in preserving more energy in the battery, making the car more efficient and further extending the vehicle’s range when traveling.

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