Regenerative Braking

What is kinetic energy?

How are car manufacturers using this energy to power their cars?

Read on as ROADSTER! explains all about regenerative braking!

Here’s a question to think about…

Picture a skateboarder riding ramps 

in a skateboard park. 

How does the rider get to top of 

each ramp?

The rider builds power by using the

weight of their body (their mass) to move the board, and the motion of the board to build up speed (their velocity). 

Eventually, all of these elements combine to create enough energy to get the skateboard to the top of each ramp… the greater the amount of energy the higher the board goes!

The energy that has built in the motion of the skateboard is called kinetic energy.

Now, imagine that the rider doesn’t want to get to the top of the next ramp…

What happens to all the energy that has built up?

The rider will either LOSE the amount of energy they have built up by trying to stop, or they will USE the built up  energy to take the board in another direction.

Now think of this same process in a car…

When a petrol car is travelling at speed it builds up kinetic energy, but  this energy is lost when the driver applies the brakes. 

Now electric car manufacturers have developed a clever way of collecting all of that kinetic energy

and using it...

Some electric and hybrid cars are using a new technology - regenerative braking. 

• Normally an electric motor provides the car’s with its power (output). 

• With regenerative braking, when a driver takes their foot off the accelerator pedal the motor is reversed, turning it into a machine for making power  (input).

• When the brakes are applied the energy that has been built up by the motion of the car is captured and transferred into the motor, creating electricity. 

• This electricity is then stored in the car’s battery, providing small boosts in the battery’s range… clever!

• Kinetic energy (KE) is the amount of energy a moving object has built up because of its mass (m) and it’s velocity (V).

• Regenerative braking is a really smart way to make cars more efficient, be kinder to the environment, and use energy wisely… awesome!