Brake pads are physically worn by braking. But the EV has an electric motor, which is the same thing as a generator. I don't mean they're pretty similar, they're the _same thing_ because of how electricity works‡. So this means (albeit with some extra circuitry) the EV can just run everything backwards and turn your movement back into electricity to brake the vehicle. It does still need brakes, but it uses them much less than an ICE vehicle.

‡ And likewise an electric pump and a turbine are the same thing in opposite directions. At Dinorwig, for example, the pumped storage facility, when water flows down it drives a bunch of huge turbines to make electricity for peak usage and when they have spare electricity to store those same machines function as pumps to move the water back up to the top lake.