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I know regen works on my Prius. But it's set to about 10% of max with the the throttle off (to simulate engine braking on a conventional car). I usually apply just enough throttle to eliminate the regen when I want to coast - the Prius has a display that tells the driver when the regen is on and off so it's easy to modulate. Then when I approach a light or stop sign, I let off the throttle and let the regen resume and apply just enough brake (trying to stay within the regen zone so as not to engage the mechanical brakes) to get a smooth stop. I know the regen is working because I can see the battery charge level rise.
Possible reasons why the tester didn't see a benefit from regen:
A) Different conditions between tests.
B) Didn't do the math correctly.
C) Regen level set too high so that he was "hunting" between regen and applying power to maintain speed, wasting energy (due to system losses) along the way.
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