OEM manufacturers are developing new kinds of brakes for electric vehicles (EVs). The reason: regenerative braking, corrosion, and vehicle weight are a danger to brake performance.
Regenerative braking
Electric cars use “engine braking”, where the vehicle slows down when the driver releases the accelerator pedal. This engages the ‘alternator function’, which is used to produce energy, a process known as ‘regenerative braking’. The electric motor sends electricity to the battery, as opposed to sending electricity to the drive train. This causes a vehicle to slow down and come to a stop.
There are a few problems with this technology. Regenerative braking doesn’t work when the battery is fully charged, because there is no ‘space’ to send the electricity to. So when you charge your EV at night and drive off with a fully charged car in the morning, the regenerative braking system is essentially useless. Therefore, an EV still needs conventional brakes.
Brakes rust more
Due to regenerative braking, the conventional brakes are used less, especially in urban environments. When brakes sit inside the wheel housing, they don’t really do much and they will get corroded very soon, especially in wet climates. Rust on brakes seriously reduces the braking power of a car, increasing the risk of a serious accident due to the reduction of brake performance.
EVs are heavy
These problems are exacerbated by the weight of EVs. The new GMC Hummer EV for example, weighs a massive 4.5 tons, the Audi e-tron tops the scale at 2.6 ton, and the NIO ES8 weighs 2.46 ton. The heavier a vehicle the harder it is to stop.
Solutions
Imagine 4.5 tons on the road, in an emergency, with rusty brake discs, without regenerative braking, unable to stop in time. OEM car makers are aware of this risk. They have developed a new generation of high tech brake systems with new coatings and alloys, made of expensive materials.
Independent after-market brake manufacturers
This is a big challenge for independent after-market manufacturers (IAM), which have to figure out a way to develop after-market replacement brakes that comply with the new brake systems developed by OEMs. There is no universal standard yet for this new generation of brakes. A standard would enable IAMs to work with generic materials and generally accepted processes to develop and produce the next generation replacement brakes.
When a standard is eventually set the development of new replacement brakes can begin. However, these brakes then still have to go through the mandatory ECE R90 test protocol and approval procedure before they can be offered on the replacement-brake market. 6th Gear Automotive Solutions, founded in 2006 in Shanghai, China, assists after-market brake manufacturers with the ECE R90 certification process. Please contact us for more information.