How Much Does Regen ACTUALLY Charge Your Electric Car?
Regen braking. Most people have heard of it, but I personally have no idea how much it actually recharges the battery. Is regen just a gimmick? Because it’s hard to measure. How do we know if it’s actually recharging the battery at all? So, come with me as we’re going to help answer six important questions to understand if regen actually works, how much is topping up the battery, and if you should use it in certain situations. And you might be surprised by the results. But first, let’s quickly break down how regen actually works. Now, in electric cars, there are three main types of motors. Electrically excited synchronous motor, induction motor, and the most common ones are permanent magnet synchronous motors. There are also two main parts to an electric motor, the STA and the rotor. The rotor is a middle bit that spins, and the STA is the housing outside of it. An inverter sends controlled AC power into the STA to create a rotating magnetic field, RMF. The RMF spins, the rotor’s magnets lock onto it, and the rotor follows that spinning field. This creates torque and drives the wheels. So, basically, think of it like a magnet pulling a metal ball. The magnetic field, the RMF field moves ahead and the ball follows it. And when you use regen braking, this all reverses. The wheels are turning the rotor faster than the magnetic field. The magnets in the rotor now push past the rotating field. the motor starts generating electric fields instead and pushes power back into the battery. Now, not all regen works in the same way. Different EVs have completely different systems. Let me show you what your car might have. There are actually several types of regen in electric cars, and not one system is the same as the next. First of all, there’s traditional regen, which is where the car decides on how much to actually apply based on your speed, your angle, if you’re going down or uphill, and of course, your battery health and state. So older Nissan Leafs like the one I’m driving right now, Kia and Hyundai and VW models have this automatic regen mode and it feels natural as you take your foot off the car decelerates. But ultimately you don’t have much control over it and you can’t decide how much regen to apply and the strength of it. Which brings us on to adjustable regen. So this is where you choose the regen yourself using steering wheel paddles or in the settings. Now this is common on modern EVs such as Kia, Hyundai, Teslas and most other modern cars. Now Tesla of course have adjustable options in their settings rather than having physical paddles. Typically it goes from three to five levels, very mild to very strong. And taking it one step further, some electric cars have what’s known as one pedal driving. And this essentially works as brakes. So regen kicks in as soon as you take your foot off the accelerator and it will basically slow the car down to zero. It’s a bit like engine braking in a petrol car, but of course much more severe. And you’re putting power back into the battery. Or are you? Let’s answer that later. And finally, there’s a clever adaptable smart regen braking. The car uses sensors, navigation, and of course, the actual camera views to work out where the car is, how much traffic there is, and where you are on your journey. So, it adjusts regen braking based on all of these factors for you most of the time automatically. Now, to work out which regen system is better, let’s first work out when you should use it and what different driving conditions mean for your regen because it’s not the same everywhere. Different situations need different levels and if you use the wrong one, it can actually work against you and not put any power back into the battery at all. And also, it can be very disrupting to your driving. So, in cities and towns, regen works really well. You’re constantly stopping and starting in slow, low speed traffic. You’re rolling up to roundabouts and all of that requires you to slow down. So that’s free energy you can recoup back into the battery and otherwise it will be wasted in the petrol car. This is where you can use one pedal driving too. It lets you slow down smoothly and recover as much energy as possible back into the battery. Especially if you’re a really efficient driver and you can anticipate what’s coming ahead. Say the traffic lights are changing to red, which is what they’re doing now actually. if you’ve got more traffic coming up and cars are slowing down and if you can speed back up again without needing to touch the brakes. Now, check out my other video on that because I actually pushed my car to its limits and try to ek out as many miles as I possibly could by driving efficiently. And there’s a few clever tips on that video that I can show you. So, do check out that after this. A lot of people, me included, put regen on max because that’s when we think is the best possible solution to put power back into the battery and get the most range out of your car. even on motorways. But here’s how you should drive with regen in towns and cities. You should have smooth acceleration. You should gently lift off when you need to and use regen as much as possible. That’s how you recoup the most energy back into the battery. Regen of course still requires you to drive efficiently. And by the way, if you’re enjoying this video so far, please hit the subscribe button as it really really helps out my channel and we’re on the road to 10,000 subscribers now, so it would really help. Every single one counts and the majority of you are not subscribed. Hit subscribe and I’ll get to the next point. Now, motorways are the opposite in this case. Now, there’s hardly any opportunity for regen on motorways because you’re driving at a constant speed and actually cruise control and adaptive cruise control actually lower and limit the ability of regen during motorway journeys when they’re on because the systems are trying to keep you driving smoothly and at a constant speed. So, on the motorway, maximum regen is not helpful at all. Instead, you want light regen or maybe even turn it off as low as possible because efficiency when driving at a constant speed matters way more than energy recuperation because you haven’t got any energy to recuperate. Now, what if you live in a hilly area and drive up and down hills a lot? So, let’s first tackle downhill driving. Now, going downhill, which is what I’m just about to do, can be really beneficial for regen as long as your battery isn’t too full. As I’ve been told a lot by the comments on here, and I didn’t actually realize this when I first bought my electric car. Now at 90% say your electric car generally has no regen ability because the battery is too fully charged. So most EVs will limit regen massively to protect the battery. So you’ll just feel the car coasting. And it’s something I didn’t realize this until a few months after I first bought my first electric car. But if your battery is say between 20 and 70% downhill regen can be very useful, especially when you’re going for a long time downhill, you can recoup a lot of energy back into the battery. So now let’s turn around and explain what happens when you drive uphill. Now of course regen is not possible uphill. You’re just using power to get up the hill and that’s it. To drive more efficiently uphill, which is what I’m just about to do, hold a steady speed and try not to accelerate. And then you’ll recoup some of the energy that you went uphill if you’re going on the same journey back down the hill again. So before we talk about which cars have the strongest and best regen, let’s quickly look at how regen is measured because this can be where people get confused. So regen is measured in kilowatt, which is of course a unit of power. And kilowatt in a regen point of view is how fast the car can pump power back into the battery when it’s slowing down. But the actual amount of energy that you recover during a journey is measured in kilowatt hours. Now, that’s what you see on your household electricity bill. It’s also what you see when you look to buy an electric car because that’s what the battery size is measured in. And it’s also what’s measured in terms of efficiency when you drive an electric car here in the UK because it’s measured in miles per kilowatt hour. So anyway, think of it like kilowatts as the speed of charging and kilowatt hours is the total energy that you’ve gained. Now, most cars show regen in slightly different ways. Some cars give you a bar graph that fills up when you lift off and use regen. Some show arrows like negative energy, or some show little dots like my Nissan Leaf. All of that is showing slowdown force and how much energy is being recouped back into the battery. Now, the strength of regen isn’t fixed. It depends on speed, depends on your battery condition and state of charge, and it also depends on how much power your motor generates and delivers. So, some EVs have stronger regen than others. But, is there a setup that’s consistently better? Now, let’s take a look at real world standout cars that do well in terms of regen braking power. So, which cars have the best regen? First off, on the lower end of the scale, here are some electric cars that have less capable regen. Older models like the early Rena Zoies have fairly weak regeneration, and it means you end up using the brakes more often. Early plug-in hybrid models also fall under this camp because they have less power that they can deliver back into the battery because the motors and batteries are smaller in plug-in hybrids. Next are some cars that have stronger and more reliable everyday use regen with more adjustable settings and reliability. include the new modern MG4 and the VW ID range which give you a balance between regen strength and comfort. Now for the top tier and advanced regen systems, Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are known for doing this very very well. Many owners say they get 60 to 70 kW power back into the battery when they have the fully regen system on. Let me know in the comments if you’re a Tesla driver and what you see as a result on the graphs that you get when you regen brake. BMWs have their adaptive regen which is super clever. The car anticipates the braking points and then adjusts the regen according to your navigation system and surrounding cars on the road. Hyundai and Kia are also really good regen systems and you can make one pedal driving kind of a real world use scenario in those Hyundai and Kia cars. Mercedes EQ range have D and D plus auto regen braking as well which are really clever and advanced systems. The auto system, of course, is like the BMW system where it adapts to your real world driving situations. So, you’ve got that ultimate balance between comfort and effectively getting more battery power back into your battery when you slow down. Now, it’s important to stress that regen varies and depends on all of these factors: battery temperature, state of charge, driving speed, road surface, software version of your car, and even tire grip or weather. So, let’s answer our final question and work out, does Regen actually top up the battery, or is it just a gimmick? Regen can genuinely add meaningful power back into the battery, but only in the right conditions. If you’re steady motorway driving, then you won’t use any regen at all and won’t recuperate any power. But around town, in stop start traffic, going downhill, all of these situations really, really help with regen. You can recover a surprising amount. Now, you can’t use it to replace charging, of course, because the power that you’ve used within the battery to get up to that speed has already been used and lost. Think of it like cash back on a credit card. You’re not going to get rich from it, but you are getting something back for free that you otherwise wouldn’t have got. Now, another question I’ve always wondered is what if it constantly switches between putting power back into the battery and then discharging the battery? Doesn’t that have an effect on the battery life and condition? Now, this is the part that surprised me because you might think that pumping power back out of the battery and then back into the battery would actually have a really negative effect on its health. But EV batteries don’t work the same as say phone batteries. They’re designed for lots of fast high frequency changes in power all the time with power going in and power going out. And that’s what motors do. Now, the amount of energy that’s moved in and out during regen is a lot less than say when you’re rapid charging. So the idea that regen hurts the battery health and condition is not exactly true and using regen of course is easier on your brakes if anything. Real world data shows that it can be surprisingly helpful to use regen to top up the battery but only in the right situations. For example, some drivers report a 5 to 10% recovery during journeys. One driver gained 12% from going downhill 6,000 ft. Another driver claimed that they did a whole 36 milei trip while declining 5,000 ft using 0% battery. And on downhill routes generally, people actually claimed that they actually improved the range of their electric car and added extra power back into the battery. Even on normal commutes, one owner stated that they gained 10 mi of range. So, yes, regen can put meaningful power back into your battery, but it all depends on your driving habits and the environment that you’re driving in. And on top of that, electric cars are already more efficient in the way that they use their fuel. So with a petrol and diesel car, you’re already losing around 75% as heat. So with that, thanks so much for watching. I hope you learned something today. Hit subscribe and watch this video next. Peace out.
Is Regen just a myth? How many different types are there? and which one is actually best?
The results might surprise you!
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📖 Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:31 what is regen ‘braking’?
01:35 there’s many types
03:13 How should you use regen
06:49 how regen is measured
08:05 which cars have good systems
09:44 why regen power changes
10:04 is it just a gimmick?
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