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Regen Questions

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While driving our roadsters, (or any other BEV or hybrid), can we regenerate more energy by using the brakes, or is all energy regenerated thru the motor only? I have driven a Honda CR-Z Hybrid and a Ford Escape Hybrid. I was never able to feel any slowing due to regeneration, they felt the same as any non hybrid car. Is this because of the relatively small motors the hybrids use?
 
Tesla's regen control is entirely on the accelerator pedal. Lift off and you've got full regen, and it's pretty strong on the Roadster. Hit the brake pedal and, well, you're hitting the "real" brakes, and are essentially wasting energy in the process.
 
Why is the regen 'hard' on the tires? I was told the stock tires gets worn because its soft but also because of the regen at the back.

I never thought about that, but most of our braking is done with only the rear wheels, due to the regen.

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I never thought about that, but most of our braking is done with only the rear wheels, due to the regen.

The point I was trying to make is that I had heard about how quickly the rear tires wear out and the fact that most of the braking is done with the rears, it was an "aha" moment for me.
 
Regen wears tires as much as downshifting a car. The reason it would wear your rear tires more compared to braking is that when you brake the stopping forces or friction against the tire / pavement is equally distributed across 4 tires. With regen its the friction is concentrated on one tire most of the time (differential setup) and sometimes both rears at the same time depending on how the rear diff has distributed the forces.
 
Actually with brakes more of the force is on the front tires due to weight transfer so with accel on the rears and brakes on the fronts in a normal car the wear is more even. With EV's not so much (until we have AWD versions).