Tesla’s regenerative braking automatically uses the electric vehicle’s (EV’s) motor to convert kinetic energy into electricity to both charge the battery and reduce wear on a person’s brakes – and it’s also one of Tesla’s most popular features.
In a new update, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that regenerative braking “means brake pads almost never need to be replaced,” in response to a post about a single Model S which went 400,000 kilometers (248,458 miles) without changing the brake pads.
Regen (using motor) braking means brake pads almost never need to be replaced
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2021
While many Tesla fans are familiar with the power of the company’s regenerative braking, many in the thread also shared how long they’ve been using the original brake pads, with one user posting a photo of the odometer saying they had also driven 552,552 kilometers (343,339 miles) without having them replaced.
Last year, Tesla’s newer models dropped the ability for users to manually edit regenerative braking strength, in which previous users could set the system to standard or low options.
In the past, Tesla’s vehicles also could not use the regenerative braking feature in extremely cold conditions, but with Tesla update 2021.4.11, drivers can now use the feature even when the battery’s still cold.
Due to the way regenerative braking works, Musk also noted last year that the feature doesn’t work if a car’s battery is 100% charged, since the car doesn’t have any more room to charge the battery – thus making the car less efficient.
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