Comparison of electric vehicles with single drive and four wheel drive system concerning regenerative braking

Electric vehicles offer the capability to recover energy by electric braking and therefore to extend the range. Generally, the total demanded brake force of a vehicle is divided and allocated to the front and the rear wheels due to safety and stability issues. Consequently, common electric vehicles with only one central electric machine which drives one axle cannot exhaust the whole potential of recuperation. The advantages of a four wheel drive in combination with a brake slip control with regard to the recuperated energy and also to vehicle stability are presented in this paper on the basis of simulations. For this purpose vehicles with comparable performance but different topologies are modelled and compared.