Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic
.Even then you are talking about the level of efficiency of a manual transmission and a parts count about 30% lower for the powertrain as a whole (hundreds fewer parts), and the alternative has no regeneration capability whatsoever.
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Unless you have been living in a cave the past 15 years, you might have noticed that there are
millions upon millions of the alternative on the roads.
And given this is fossil fuel free, any modern EV gets regen for free (talk about low parts count).
But regen is a really hard thing to quantify, as you know. If you have to build it like a nuclear sub, then it is gonna be expensive and heavy, and have a definite effect on rolling resistance and etc. So you kind of have to iteratively look at it.
if you start looking at components and not at their effect on the system, or dropping various losses, then you can come up with all kinds of figures, i.e. %95 efficient regen for a ford focus electric? (top it off, drive up a hill, take a picture, coast down the hill). Actually it looks like 72%, which is going to be hard to beat, especially on a cost/weight/complexity basis, especially on an EV.
Ford Focus Electric gets a 95% braking regen efficiency | PluginCars.com
I expect a hydraulic system would be in major bleed-off after the the first 100 wheel revolutions too coming back down the hill.