One very interesting aspect of driving the Zoe is the way it naturally teaches you to look well ahead and drive with a high degree of anticipation (which is a good thing to do in any vehicle). When you ease off the throttle, particularly on a downhill, you effectively get an equivalent of engine braking but this feeds a little bit of power back into the battery. When you brake gently, this increases the degree of regen braking and it’s only when you press harder on the brake that the friction brakes kick in.
You find yourself approaching things like junctions more gently (which you should really, rather than racing up then slamming your brakes on hard at the last second) in order to get that nice indication of regen, smooth ride and not add any wear to your brake pads. It’s getting to be that I look way ahead, keep a good distance and very rarely use the “real” brakes, something I’m getting better at all the time. Can’t argue with free energy for driving sensibly.