Just had a chat with a work colleague who has a PHEV, think he said its a Kia but cant remember the exact model.
He said he can adjust the amount of regen braking force on his PHEV.
So that got me looking online at my DS E Tense PHEV, and apparently the regen braking can be adjusted by using the paddles + - on the steering column.
Is this correct ?
Theres something written about it here.
Tested: 2026 DS No4 E-Tense - Full review, price & features | Autocar
That may be a new enhancement, Stellantis vehicles, even EV’s circa 2023 don’t have this function.
Thats what I thought !
In our cars, the B button does that, but you can only adjust regen between two levels. I’ve become adapted to using the B in my normal driving as a sort of “pre” brake pedal. I believe multiple levels of regen has been around for a while on certain cars, but it is more to tune the regen action to suit an individual drivers driving style.
The electric powertrain options of the DS4 and No4 shouldn’t be compared. They use different concepts in the PHEV version.
By this do you mean either on or off ?
No, energy recovery is always present. Only when B is turned on does the energy recovery rate increase significantly. This means very low level on B OFF, high level on B ON.
Didnt realise it still worked, albeit low when switched off.
If a bit more detail is useful: Having done a bit on automotive control as part of my job, I was curious to better understand about how the regen braking works.
Google advised that the DS4 regen braking is “series” - which basically means that the first bit of braking action from pressing the pedal is entirely done by the motors (acting as generator) but as you press the pedal further the regen cannot deliver all the braking and so the mechanical/friction brakes start being used. So if you are very light on your brakes, then the friction brakes wont get used at all.
If you like graphs - series regen braking is the graph on the right:
The B mode just means there is extra regen, and even when the brake pedal is not pressed.
