Brent Melton/iStock
READ MORE ABOUT:
Regenerative Braking Can Help Save Energy
Regenerative braking is a mechanism that reduces vehicle speed by converting some of its kinetic energy into another useful form of energy. This captured energy is then stored for future use or fed back into a power system for use by other vehicles. It is estimated that on hybrid electric vehicles one can save 10 to 25%.
One Way We Should Help Out Transit System
We should be using electric regenerative braking in all electric railway vehicles. They would then feed the generated electricity back into the supply system; or a battery bank.
In battery electric and hybrid electric vehicles, the energy is stored in a battery or bank of capacitors for later use.
Other forms of energy storage which may be used include compressed air or hydraulic and flywheel.
I have recently been hearing some more about flywheel technology that is quite interesting.
However, hydraulic regen (as we use to call it) could be more efficient since it is estimated that you could reduce fuel consumption by about 25 to 45 percent source: Hybridcars.com.
Many now have experienced coasting in a hybrid electric car. As with a hybrid and by definition, an EV is designed to be as frictionless as possible.
So take advantage of this great characteristic! Learn to pulse your accelerator and coast to the next light or to the vehicle ahead of you in traffic.
NYC Cabs
It has been really great to see an increase in the amount of hybrid electric car and particularly cab owners (especially NYC taxi owners).
When you accelerate, you do not need to floor it and then coast. You can slowly step on the accelerator and then take your foot off of the accelerator to coast. When you coast, you use the regenerative braking. It is much smoother and a more efficient use of the vehicle since it is moving forward and charging at the same time. While there are plenty of people that own converted EVs that like to floor it and coast, regeneration can be a very big help in most stop and go driving.
Excerpts Taken From Build Your Own Electric Vehicle, 2nd Edition, by Seth Leitman and Bob Brandt.
More on Cars Saving Energy
How Hybrid Cars Work
Improving Fuel Economy
Hybrid-car Performance
How to Go Green: Hybrid Cars
-
- {}
