Victor Tikhonov wrote: > Matt Muelver wrote: > > > > I've been reading that these cars have poor braking > performance, but > > I'm sure that something can be done about that, especially > since the > > braking system needs to be modified for EV conversion anyway. > > That is, unless you have regen. > > There are days where I drive to work and run errands and > don't even touch brake pedal at all - regen provides dead stop easily. > > Only if emergency arise, I use both regen and mechanical > brakes and combined I'm sure they are more effective than > even modified brakes alone.
Hi Victor, I know you're a strong proponent of regen, and I agree to an extent. Regen can be a wonderful thing. However, I believe Matt was referring to braking system mods being needed due to the added weight of a typical conversion. Those mods are needed _regardless_ of whether the vehicle will have regen. What if your regen fails, something that is as likely as a wire coming loose? The braking system must be adequate to stop the car quickly in an emergency _without_help_from_regen_. Also keep in mind that regen operates only on the drive wheels, which can seriously upset braking balance. (ABS does not compensate for this, unless it works together with the regen controller.) Depending on its strength and the intelligence with which it is integrated, regen can actually increase braking distances or cause loss of control under hard braking and/or cornering. Regen should be disabled completely for maximum performance braking so that proper braking balance is restored. Strong regen as you decelerate into a hard turn can easily cause the drive wheels to slide. Just driving around with regen is probably very satisfying. I think you'll find that if you test your installation out at the performance limits, as it might be used by an uninformed driver, you might find some rude surprises. A really good regen implementation is not an easy thing to do. It's encouraging that your systems have very flexible regen. I'm waiting for someone to do a really world-class implementation and report on it. Chris
