Regenerative Braking System of an Automobile – Pros and Cons
                     Regenerative Braking System of an Automobile – 
Pros and Cons
Patrica Crewe
Writes for Power-opinions.com
Made many article contributions for 
http://power-opinions.com/.
Regenerative braking system can be mostly found in electric and gas-electric 
hybrid vehicles. Its main objective is to recapture the energy produced when 
brakes are applied. The electric motor used to drive the engine plays a major 
role during braking operation. When the brake pedal is pressed, the 
regenerative braking circuit switches the electric motor operates in reverse to 
charge the battery, when driver applies the brake.
In this article, we are going to discuss regenerative system in an automobile 
and the pros and cons. Most common form of regenerative brake technology 
reprocess an electric motor as a generator, this is the main reason, why 
regenerative brakes are found in hybrid and electric vehicles.
During normal operation, the electric motor draws power from the battery and 
uses it to move the vehicle. When the brake pedal is pressed, the electric 
motor is able to reverse this process and feed electricity back into the battery. 
This process will help charge the battery without any plug-ins in an electric 
vehicle, which results in increasing the efficiency of the vehicle. In traditional 
set of brake shoes or calipers clamp can decrease a vehicles wheel rotation. 
Due to this lots of friction and energy is released in the form of heat. That 
energy goes to waste. The regenerative braking can be 90% efficient to 
capture the kinetic energy and can convert it to electric energy.
Regenerative brakes can effectively convert kinetic energy into electricity, 
they are able to slow a vehicle down at the same interval. The main issue with 
a regenerative braking system, they don’t work well at low speeds as they do 
at high speeds.
Pros and cons of a regenerative braking system
The advantages of regenerative braking are you will notice better fuel 
economy, reduce in carbon dioxide emission and also they are saving energy. 
The electric motor works in reverse during regenerative braking.
 The electric motor act as a generator to recharge batteries with the energy 
that would normally be lost, when you press the brake pedal.
 The main problem with the regenerative braking is it still relies on friction 
braking system.
 For example, the effect of regenerative braking system decreases at lower 
speeds. For this a friction brake is required to bring the vehicle to a 
complete rest.
Friction braking system is required along with regenerative brakes in case of 
regenerative system failure.
Regenerative braking system should be developed in compressed air cars. 
Compressed air cars have a similarity with the electric vehicles with zero 
emissions. Compressed air engines also reduce the cost of vehicle production 
by around 20 per cent as there is no need for a fuel tank, cooling system, 
spark plugs or silencers. By installing regenerative system the efficiency of 
the car also increases.
About Power-Opinions 
Power-opinions.com has write-ups with opinions, tips, reviews and information 
which are the outputs of quality research, analysis and experiences of 
professionals. We understand the benefits of being well informed. So we take 
pride in providing insightful, reliable, and timely information to businesses as 
well as individuals. We cover topics from different categories including 
business, developments, entertainment, general, health, home-Living, science, 
society, and technology etc. For more details visit http://power-opinions.com/ .
       Thank you for spending your precious time in reading this article!