Regenerative brake blending for vehicle stability in electric vehicles: A systematic review

Regenerative braking enables electric vehicles to recover kinetic energy during deceleration, improving energy efficiency and reducing friction-brake wear. However, regenerative torque is constrained by motor, inverter, battery, and driveline limits and is often available only on selected axles or wheels. As a result, regenerative–friction brake blending can alter longitudinal force distribution and interact with tire–road friction limits. Under emergency braking, low-μ, μ-split, or braking-in-corner maneuvers, poorly coordinated blending may degrade wheel-slip regulation, yaw response, sideslip behavior, and directional stability, particularly when not integrated with anti-lock braking and electronic stability control. This paper presents a PRISMA-guided systematic review of regenerative–friction brake blending for vehicle stability in electric vehicles, synthesizing recent literature across regenerative braking, brake-by-wire systems, ABS/ESC coordination, and stability-oriented control allocation. The review proposes a taxonomy of series, parallel, cooperative, and hierarchical blending architectures; compares rule-based, optimization-based, model predictive, and learning-oriented strategies; and maps stability-critical maneuvers, metrics, and validation levels. The synthesis reveals recurring gaps, including limited μ-split and brake-and-steer evaluation, inconsistent reporting of actuator limits and mode transitions, and insufficient integration of stability constraints into energy-optimal allocation. A reporting checklist and design guidelines are proposed to support reproducibility, benchmarking, and industrial deployment of safer, higher-efficiency regenerative braking systems.