EV Regen braking

So, I was experimenting with the EVs of the game, mainly the eSBR 800,

I received the idea from the youtube videos made by Warped Perception and the Straight Pipes, Can you Tow an EV and use its regenerative braking to charge it?
Logically, yes you should be able to, as it does when you let off the throttle.

Test Area: Grid Small Pure.
Car: eSBR 800, (attempted with 4:1 final drive on both axles)
Battery: 1% (0.5kWh) / 40kWh (100%)
Screenshots







Due to hardware issues, I wasnt able to tow the car, so i used the Wind!!!! app to shove the car forward upto.. well, 500+ kph.

Regen was pretty strong when off throttle, and was charging the battery at around 250kWh. (speed @ 200-250kph)

Increasing the speed to around 400kph,
While braking at 100%, the regen decreases to around 300kWh
but while brakes are at 99%, regen reaches around 500kWh, which charges the battery pretty quick..


Issue i faced:
When selecting 0kWh, basically spawning with a dead battery, the regen is non existent, no matter how much you go downhill and regen, it just doesnt take up charge. Technically it should, but it doesnt.

when at 100% braking, it doesnt give you 100% regen, but around 50%, which you can see in the Cherriers Gauges. Havent tested the Cherrier yet, but will do in the future.

Havent exactly tested the same with @default0.0player's electric logic mod though.

Just a weird experiment i tried.

 

After a quick test I found that the Updated Shiftlogic Automatic Transmissions has the same problem, but if you start with 0.5kWh drain it to 0, then regen it can charge from 0%. IDK where the problem is, from the electric battery maybe?

When emergency braking the regen reduces, as explaned here

This unrealistically high value is because the regen torque curve is auto-generated and the problem is the regen torque always increases with speed without a plateau. This update of my mod features a realistic regen torque curve and brake blending

 

What I missed about emergency braking is:

I completely removed the friction brakes, so it was just the ev motor regenning as much as it could until 99% brake pressure.
Once the brakes pressure hit 100% (mind you the car was still doing around 250kph while regen) it still cut the regen to half compared to just 99% brake pressure..
Which, I don't know if it should happen or not..
And since no brakes, no abs being activated

I haven't tried it with esc removed though, might give it a shot. But not sure if I'll be able to see how much regen it's getting since the gauges might be in G-Force meter rather than battery consumption..

 

Whether you remove the brakes are not I don't think it will make a difference.

I believe it is measuring the pedal input, so once that goes to 100% it will reduce the regen.

 

I wonder what would happen if it relied on ABS to reduce regen, instead of 100% brake pedal input.. as, I guess in emergency braking, regen might lock up the wheels. So maybe the regen decreased when the abs kicks in..

 

That is an interesting idea. I wonder if the regen controller is clever enough to deal with traction issues.

I know real EVs often have a snow mode that drastically reduces regen (especially on the rear axle) but I don't know what happens if it notices one wheel slowing more than the others and possibly causing a loss of control. I guess the ESC kicks in.

 

I noticed it even in gridmap v2 on the snow strip, climbing that with just the RWD ev with the performance motor is not easy.. esc is always in control..

 

This is because of the motor controller does not take the actual braking force into account, but use the brake input value. Please read the
\BeamNG.drive\lua\vehicle\controllershiftLogic-electricMotor.lua
In line 238

Code:

  electrics.values.regenThrottle = regenThrottle * escCoef * steeringCoef * emergencyBrakeCoef

And the "emergencyBrakeCoef" is in line 235

Code:

  local emergencyBrakeCoef = M.brake >= 1 and 0.5 or 1

This means when the brake is at 100% it cuts the regen in half, any value less than 100% does not cut regen power.

 

heheheheheheheheh, now im wondering what an actual EV would do in this situation xD

Yes, this was a very weird experiment.