What is Regenerative Braking? How it Works and Why it Matters

Key Takeaways: Regenerative Braking

  • Regenerative braking (“regen” for short) is when hybrids and EVs use the electric motor as a generator to slow down the car.
  • Instead of powering the car by spinning the wheels, the wheels (and the car’s momentum) turn the electric motor, transforming their rotational energy into electrical energy.
  • Regenerative braking charges the battery rather than converting rotational energy into friction and heat through traditional brakes.
  • Regen helps maximize electric range, enable one-pedal driving, and can drastically reduce traditional brake (pad and rotor) wear.

What is Regenerative Braking?

Regenerative braking is a feature of electrified vehicles, be they full EV, gas-electric hybrid, or plug-in hybrid (PHEV). This feature allows the wheels to spin the electric motor (rather than only being spun by it) and turn it into a generator, transforming rotational kinetic energy into electricity stored back into the EV or hybrid battery.

A traditional braking system relies on friction between brake pads and rotors to slow the vehicle down, essentially turning that energy from forward momentum into heat. The brake pad wears down, the rotor heats up — the same physics that happens when rubbing your hands together for warmth. Since EVs and hybrids can use regenerative braking and rely less on traditional brakes, they actually reduce brake dust emissions significantly.

While hybrids and EVs still have traditional braking systems, they also utilize a helpful aspect of electric motors: when they’re spun in the opposite direction, they do the opposite, putting electricity back into the battery.

Vehicles like the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV use their electric motors not just to power the wheels, but to recapture energy from the car as it coasts. The added drag, or force required to turn the electric motor, gradually slows down the car, acting as its brakes. While electrified vehicles do this automatically in conjunction with traditional brakes, some also include special regen modes or settings allowing the driver to engage regenerative braking at varying intensity.

How Does Regenerative Braking Work?

Regenerative braking turns energy in motion, known as kinetic energy, back into stored energy. While EVs and hybrids also have traditional braking systems, known as friction brakes, that rub brake pads against metal rotors to slow down the wheels, they balance the job between both systems for maximum efficiency, performance, and safety.

In an EV or hybrid with regenerative braking, the electric motor acts as an electric generator. It helps to first understand how an electric motor works. Electric motors turn electrical energy into mechanical energy, typically by using electromagnets powered by the battery to spin a shaft that (through a few other components) turn the wheels (mechanically).

The energy flows from: Battery → electric motor → wheels.

Using the electric motor as a generator

When regenerative braking is activated, the car’s computers simply tell the electric motor to stay engaged, but not provide power. Instead, they let the wheels — spinning due to the momentum the car gained under acceleration — spin the electric motor. This allows the motor to act as a generator, since it generates electricity by mechanically spinning the rotor or magnets inside. That electricity is deposited back into the battery.

During regenerative braking, energy flows from: Wheels → electric motor → battery.

Ever played with a kids’ toy car that can be pulled back to wind up, then let go to zoom away? While much more complex, regenerative braking works in a similar way. Capturing the car’s forward energy during braking and storing it to propel the car later is like pushing the car back. You store the mechanical energy (in a toy’s spring or an EV’s battery) until it’s activated to provide propulsion.

Activating regenerative braking

Most electrified vehicles use regenerative braking to some degree whenever you stop accelerating, then engage it more strongly when the brake pedal is pushed or regen mode is activated. Some PHEVs and EVs even offer a “one pedal driving” setting with regen so strong, the car will come to a gentle almost-stop if not under acceleration. In most cases, though, they balance traditional friction braking with regenerative braking for effective stopping power, smooth movements, and efficient operation.

Regen is highly effective at adding energy back into the battery, instead of losing it as heat through the friction brakes. Through smart power management, regenerative braking, and other efficiency tactics, electrified vehicles maximize their electric range by conserving and recapturing the battery’s charge.

Why Regenerative Braking Matters for Efficiency and Range

Capturing energy during braking that would typically just be wasted as heat through friction is part of what makes electrified vehicles so efficient, able to go the distances modern drivers desire. While PHEVs and hybrids have a gasoline engine on board that can be refueled quickly and conveniently when the battery depletes, even full EVs can travel quite far before they need charging. The median range of full EVs is over 350km, longer than most drivers can last without at least a bathroom break, anyway, making EV range anxiety mostly a thing of the past.

As batteries have grown larger and powertrains have become more efficient, their ability to regenerate energy during braking has also improved. The energy captured from regenerative braking is part of what factors into an EV’s range estimate, with improved regen capability leading to greater range.

While regenerative braking kicks in more during city traffic than on highway cruises, it’s beneficial in both scenarios. Slow, steady braking is already a reliable way to maximize fuel efficiency, but regenerative braking takes it even further to actually recapture energy typically lost to friction braking.

When and How to Use Regenerative Braking Effectively


Regenerative braking is not a replacement for friction brakes, even though it can drastically cut down their usage and wear. It’s more of an extra feature than a replacement for friction brakes, which are still crucial to stopping fully, quickly, and safely.

The best way to leverage regenerative braking is to drive normally, letting the advanced EV/hybrid powertrain systems determine the optimal balance between regenerative and friction braking. However, if the vehicle has the option to engage it manually, it’s most effective in stop-and-go traffic, around-town driving, and during downhill descents, where it will have the most opportunity to capture energy.

Highway driving might be when regenerative braking is least impactful, but the technology will still recapture energy when you let off the accelerator. Vehicles equipped with both regenerative braking and adaptive cruise control (ACC) can maximize efficiency even more by accurately balancing regen in cruising scenarios before using the traditional brakes.

By anticipating stops, slowing down early, and easing into the brakes, drivers can get the most benefit from regenerative braking.

What to Know Before Using Regenerative Braking

Regenerative braking seems like all upside — and for the most part, it is. It reduces friction brake wear, extends EV range, improves efficiency, and supports a smooth driving experience.

However, it’s important to understand the essential part regenerative braking plays in a hybrid, PHEV, or EV’s overall efficiency and range before purchasing. If you don’t take advantage of regen, you may not get the top advertised range. You also want to be prepared for a slightly different driving experience, so you’re not surprised when the car slows down more strongly than a car without regen. For some drivers, it might take a few hundred kilometers to get used to.

But really, there’s no need to worry about challenges or downsides to regenerative braking. The additional complexity is really just part of the overall hybrid or EV’s advanced technology, and it’s used in ways that are safe for the battery, charging system, brakes, and other critical components of the car.

How Regenerative Braking Supports EV and Hybrid Vehicle Efficiency

Regenerative braking is part of what makes EVs and hybrids so efficient. Normally, braking is just an energy loss — all that forward momentum, simply scrubbed away as heat through the friction of the traditional braking system. Regen, instead, turns some of that stopping energy into going energy. By adding kilowatts back to the battery by using the car’s momentum to turn the motor as a generator, they can deposit electrical charge back into the battery to retain more range.

Regenerative braking can even make for a more comfortable driving experience. Instead of manually modulating the pedal or stopping briskly, regen gently slows the car down when coasting down a hill, approaching a stop, or when the brake pedal is pushed. In stop-and-go city traffic, regenerative braking can make the driving experience much more relaxing.

Electrified vehicles are also known for having lower maintenance costs since they have fewer moving parts (EVs) or use the traditional ICE engine less often (hybrids/PHEVs). Regenerative braking extends that benefit to the brake system. Because the electric motor/generator handles much of the braking load, costly wear items including brake pads and rotors don’t get used as much, so they won’t need to be replaced as often. Since electrified vehicles can be heavier than an equivalent ICE-powered vehicle, due to the added weight of their batteries, regen also helps balance out the added stopping power it takes to slow their greater mass.

As part of the innovative, efficient electrified powertrain, regenerative braking is part of what enables hybrids, PHEVs, and EVs to make so much sense for modern drivers. Range, efficiency, comfort, and reduced brake wear make it a technology worth getting familiar with and embracing in your next vehicle.

 

Explore how the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV uses regenerative braking, and discover other features designed for efficient everyday driving.

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