Why not install some kind of electrical generator instead of brakes?

597 views

When a vehicle speeds up, it uses energy of fuel/battery. Eventually it comes to a stop, which turns the kinetic energy into the heat of brakes. The brakes then cool down transferring the heat to the environment. So instead of heating up the brakes, can an electrical generator be installed to extract at least a fraction of the used energy? Or it won’t be able to stop a vehicle fast enough?

Edit: turns out it is a thing and called regenerative braking. I won’t delete the post though for anyone with the same question

In: Technology

8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

you’re talking about regenerative braking, which is already a thing.

You still only get a fraction back out of it due to inefficiencies and whatnot. And you’re right, it alone isn’t fast enough, so some of the braking has to be traditional, non regenerative.

You are viewing 1 out of 8 answers, click here to view all answers.