# How Regenerative Braking Works in an EV

By Gregory Wilson · Excerpt from Chapter 2 of *EV Curious?*

Regenerative braking is probably the single biggest difference you'll feel when you drive an EV for the first time. It's also one of the coolest features once you understand what's actually happening underneath the pedal.

## What regenerative braking actually does

When you're cruising along and lift your foot off the accelerator, the electric motor that was propelling you forward essentially switches jobs and becomes a generator. Instead of using electricity from the battery to spin the wheels, it uses the momentum of the car to spin the motor, which creates electricity that gets fed back into the battery. You're literally putting energy back into your car just by slowing down.

This isn't just a neat party trick. I've driven down long mountain grades and watched my range actually increase during the descent. In typical driving, regenerative braking can extend your range by about 15–30%, though it varies based on how much stop-and-go driving you do. City driving with frequent braking sees the biggest benefit; highway cruising sees much less.

## One-pedal driving: the ultimate regen

One-pedal driving takes regenerative braking to its logical extreme. With this feature enabled, lifting your foot completely off the accelerator slows the car aggressively enough that it comes to a complete stop. No brake pedal required for normal driving. You can accelerate, cruise, slow down, and stop using just the accelerator pedal.

I know it sounds weird, but it becomes incredibly natural surprisingly quickly. The deceleration is proportional to how quickly you lift your foot. Ease off gradually and you get gentle slowing; lift quickly and you get more aggressive deceleration. If one-pedal driving doesn't appeal to you, it can be turned off in most EVs so the car feels more like a traditional vehicle.

Even among cars that offer one-pedal driving, the implementations vary. Some bring you to a complete stop; others slow you down significantly but still require the brake pedal for the final stop.

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This is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of *EV Curious? — What I Learned from Seven EVs* by Gregory Wilson. Chapter 2 also covers how to adjust regen sensitivity (and which cars use paddle shifters to do it on the fly), why Porsche deliberately doesn't offer one-pedal driving on the Taycan or Macan EV (and why their approach still works), why your EV brake pads can easily last 100,000+ miles, and why regen is what makes stop-and-go traffic stop being exhausting.

- [Kindle — $9.99](https://a.co/d/gxrEPR0)
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## Related chapters

- [What driving an EV actually feels like](https://evcurious.blog/driving-an-ev/)
- [Understanding EV efficiency: kWh/100mi vs miles/kWh vs MPGe](https://evcurious.blog/ev-efficiency-units/)
- [EV plugs and adapters: NACS, J1772, CCS explained](https://evcurious.blog/ev-charging-adapters/)
- [Busting the top 10 EV myths](https://evcurious.blog/ev-myths/)
- [How to plan your first EV road trip](https://evcurious.blog/ev-road-trip-planning/)