Investigation of the Effectiveness of Regenerative Braking for EV and HEV

The possibility of recovering vehicle kinetic energy is one inherent advantage of electric and hybrid electric vehicles. When a vehicle drives in heavy traffic, for example in New York City, more than half of the total energy is dissipated in the brakes. Therefore, recovering braking energy is an effective approach for improving the driving range of EV and the energy efficiency of HEV.

In this paper, three different braking patterns are investigated for evaluating the availability of braking energy recovery. The results indicate that even without active braking control, a significant amount of braking energy can be recovered, and the brake system does not need much changing from the brake systems of conventional passenger cars.