dgpcolorado
Well-known member
We've had some spirited debate in the past about how efficient the regen brakes are in the LEAF. I got a chance to read a LEAF technician's workbook and came across a description of the braking system that showed a general chart of how the regen and friction brakes are coordinated. And it tells the prospective LEAF technicians: "During braking, the system can recover up to 39% of the vehicle's kinetic energy and use it to recharge the battery."
That's what Nissan was saying a couple of years ago when the workbook was written. It seems like a reasonable number to me now that I can watch Gids come and go as I go down and up the hills here. Regen never gives back even half of the energy I use to climb the same hills (I did about sixteen thousand feet of cumulative elevation change yesterday). Regen is better than losing all the kinetic energy to brake heat but one doesn't get all that much of it back into the battery.
And that's why the serious hypermilers here prefer to coast when practical, assuming that one isn't coasting anywhere near terminal velocity, which is a loser compared to regen.
FWIW.
That's what Nissan was saying a couple of years ago when the workbook was written. It seems like a reasonable number to me now that I can watch Gids come and go as I go down and up the hills here. Regen never gives back even half of the energy I use to climb the same hills (I did about sixteen thousand feet of cumulative elevation change yesterday). Regen is better than losing all the kinetic energy to brake heat but one doesn't get all that much of it back into the battery.
And that's why the serious hypermilers here prefer to coast when practical, assuming that one isn't coasting anywhere near terminal velocity, which is a loser compared to regen.
FWIW.