Regenerative brakes?

[Visionist]

Are these only for 2013+ cars with start-stop or do all E89s have them? How do they work? Obviously there's no electric drive motor for gathering surplus energy during braking so...?

[bigendbob]

Just a bit of a con job by BMW.
Think just makes sure that the alternator is forced to output when braking, putting load on engine, then removes it when accelerating, nothing special.
Then only outputs when needed.
Having said that i have put a voltmeter on a cigar lighter socket and haven't seen much change in voltage.

[paris1]

Here's what BMW has to say about their regenerative braking feature
http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/t...eneration.html
which, by the way, has nothing to do with stop-start and appears to be standard on all models in the US. Although how long this has been included, I don't know.