service brake life

Recently when discussing the benefits of EVs I thought of where we live involves a lot of up/down hill driving and typically we get about 60K miles before we need to do a brake job. Does anyone know of a study as to how much the service brake life is extended due to regen braking?

Going down the hills here in my Bolt I use the paddle on the steering wheel to slow the car since the road is straight and never have to touch the service brakes unless the car is freshly charged which then will not slow much and I do have to use the brakes.

Thanks for a great site.

My experience is that the brakes are used way less than 10% of an ICE car because of regen. We probably touch the brakes 2-3 times per month.

Given that, I expect 10x the brake life of an ICE car - hundreds of thousands of miles ~= life of the vehicle.

Patronus said:

My experience is that the brakes are used way less than 10% of an ICE car because of region. We probably touch the brakes 2-3 times per month.

Given that, I expect 10x the brake life of an ICE car - hundreds of thousands of miles ~= life of the vehicle.

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Minor point, but you should keep the brake pedal pushed when at a complete stop (traffic light, etc.), as you want the brake light to be lit.

dandrewk said:

Minor point, but you should keep the brake pedal pushed when at a complete stop (traffic light, etc.), as you want the brake light to be lit.

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That is a very good point....and we do.

Patronus said:

We probably touch the brakes 2-3 times per month.

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Just 2-3x's per month? I hope this is just hyperbole.

I always drive in L but always touch my brakes at every stop sign and red light (not to mention at other times when regen is insufficient) and, even during my short 6-10 mile trips around town, this adds up to a lot more than just 2-3x's in a day. Actually, closer to 25x's in just one trip.

sgt1372 said:

Just 2-3x's per month? I hope this is just hyperbole.

I always drive in L but always touch my brakes at every stop sign and red light (not to mention at other times when regen is insufficient) and, even during my short 6-10 mile trips around town, this adds up to a lot more than just 2-3x's in a day. Actually, closer to 25x's in just one trip.

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OK, I should have said "use the brakes to stop". For that purpose, yes, it is just 2-3 times a month. We touch the brakes at stop lights very often, but, of course, that does not wear the brake pads or disks at all.

I till think the brakes will last the life of the vehicle - a few hundred thousand miles.

If you use the brake pedal gently (or the regenerative braking button) most of the time (i.e. regenerative braking most of the time), then it should take a long time to wear out the brake pads in an electric vehicle. Hybrid vehicles also tend to have extended brake pad life.

In our area, brakes would last between 25K and 45K on our ICE vehicles. My 2005 Prius went 150K miles before needing brakes. The 2012 Plug-in Prius has over 120K miles on it and has more than 50% brake life left and should get to over 200K miles before even thinking about a brake job.

Unless Chevy severely undersized the Bolt's brakes, I expect they will last between 200K and 300K miles. For some people, that's the life of the vehicle.

Good points all. Yes I earlier posted a question regarding using the regen paddle on the steering wheel regarding the brake light coming on. I did get a reply that the brake light will light up during the slowing process but at a stop will not light. This is the other reason to keep your foot on the pedal while waiting at a signal.

The brakes will last the life of the car unless they rust solid from winter de-icing chemicals; we literally never touch the brakes unless someone tries to commit suicide in front of us. Maybe we'll have to apply them occasionally in the winter just as a preventative measure.

jack vines

Here's another good point - The brakes aren't being "used up" when you're holding the pedal down and stopped. They're just clamping the caliper. It's all that damn rubbing. They only time you're really using the brake is if you're coasting in N and braking (Stupid idea anyway) or you're hammering them so hard that regen doesn't have enough capacity to do the job in full, which only happens sometimes on the highway when somebody does something cute. The rest of the time, slowing you that last 8 MPH or whatever is hardly making a dent, considering the tens of thousands of miles you get out of brakes in a non-electric car that burns up pads and rotors literally every time your foot touches the pedal. I have to agree with everybody else. The brake pads (and certainly the rotors) will outlast the rest off the car.