The rear brake rotors on my Yaris hybrid are basically always rusty because they get used so little. After some time you just know when to start braking so you only use regen instead of the brakes.
I confirm and that’s an unpleasant surprise. Already had to replace the rear rotors and pads on my Highlander… because of rust. They should add some “brake cleaning” mode to temporarily disable regenerative braking.
There’s been a few suggestions that drum brakes should make a come back, for EVs.
They’re enclosed so they don’t get dirty, the inner face of drum will rust less than discs, fade is not an issue thanks to regen braking, and before they get too hot and fade drums will brake harder than disks (thanks to a higher pad surface area). And they’re enclosed so they also keep the brake dust inside the drum, making it easier to dispose of safely.
> They should add some “brake cleaning” mode to temporarily disable regenerative braking.
Some manufacturers do that (iirc tesla calls it burninshing, others will switch regen off completely if you switch to neutral or something).
I've read that Audi and Porsche will use regular brakes once or twice at the start of every drive instead of regen, I assume using electronic control to imitate the current state of regen braking.
If you don't break hard enough, it might still be the recuperation doing its work.
Car producers can and do resolve this, e.g. iirc Audis don't use recuperation for the first breaking of the day. That way you don't have to remember to use the no-recuperation/break cleaning mode or break unnecessarily hard every now and then.
The manual recommends putting the car in neutral and then braking every once in a while to keep the brakes in good working order. Putting the car in neutral disables the recuperation and makes sure you really use the friction brakes.
(When I say "the manual", I mean both the manual of my previous car which was a hybrid Toyota Auris, and my current car which is a fully electric Volvo XC40.)
Modern EVs tend to do blended braking (at least by default) in which case pressing the brake pedal gently will likely just do more regen braking. It’s only when you request more than regen braking can provide that physical brakes engage.
Yup, my Golf GTE is mostly used to fetch groceries, but every now and again I'll blast down a faster road and brake harder than just regen to keep the brakes themselves in good condition. It's almost second-nature at this point.
