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What are electric brakes on a car?
What’s the difference between normal brakes on a gas-powered car and the electric brakes on an EV? And can you explain what regenerative braking is, exactly?
Jason Crosby · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
The main difference is how the brakes operate. In a traditional car, there’s a hydraulic system that applies pressure to the rotors (the shiny discs behind your car’s rims). These use calipers that rely on brake fluid to operate. But
electric cars
use an electrical system to perform the same operation thanks to electromagnets that apply pressure to your car’s calipers. Both use friction to slow down your car, but regenerative braking is another crucial difference between the two. Regenerative brakes are more responsive, and also tend to last twice as long as traditional brakes, adding to the increased reliability of electric cars over gas-powered vehicles.
Here’s how regenerative brakes on a car work:
- As your car rolls along, regenerative brakes transfer the resulting kinetic energy (created by movement) to recharge your car’s battery while you’re moving. It’s not enough to fully charge the whole vehicle, but it’s partially why so many electric cars have such high operating ranges that span hundreds of miles.
- While gas-powered cars lose energy when slowing down, an electric car’s motor shifts directions and starts to put energy back into the battery as you take your foot from the accelerator to the brake, and vice versa.
Regenerative brakes are just another way that electric cars represent the future of automotive travel. With such little energy going to waste, the result is a reduced environmental impact and smoother driving experience.
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