In school I learned that braking is a waste of fuel as the kinetic energy transfers to sound and heat (which is effectively a loss, right?). So how does regenerative braking recoup some of that energy into the car’s battery?
In: Engineering
The way electricity is usually generated is you take an electric motor and spin the shaft. This causes the magnets inside to rotate next to the coils, which induced an electric current. So basically an electric motor can be used two ways: you can hook it up to a battery and use electricity to spin the shaft, or you can hook it up to a battery and spin the shaft manually and charge the battery. You might see where this is going.
Sine electric motors can be used in “reverse” to create an electric current, some engineer got the idea that since the wheels on an electric car are hooked to an electric motor, why not set up the cars battery to harvest the electric current created by slowing down? So when you press on the accelerator, the battery drains as the motors soon the wheels. But as soon as you let off the pedal, the car will begin to use the deceleration of the vehicle to recharge the batteries.
It’s not a lot, and like you say, some of it is lost to friction and heat, but it’s a clever way of extending the life of the batteries.
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