Drive Systems 20. What is regenerative braking?
When electricity is fed into an electric motor, it makes the motor turn. Alternatively, when you turn the motor, you can make it produce electricity. The HEV bus is capable of using this principle. It uses the momentum of the bus traveling along the road to turn the motor, which in turn produces electricity. This electricity is fed into the battery pack. Therefore, a large amount of the energy consumed in making the us accelerate up to speed is re-capbured when the bus slows down again. This slowing of the bus using the motor generating electricity is called regenerative braking.
