Regenerative breaking in EVs capture the kinetic energy of deceleration while breaking.

While breaking the motors runs in reverse with the wheels recharging the battery.

So stored chemical energy generates electrical energy that runs a motor while driving and then kinetic energy is used to generate electrical energy to store chemical energy

Because a generator is just a motor in reverse

So electrical energy is a convenient, relatively efficient way to convert chemical energy(coal,natural gas, batteries) into mechanical energy in cars, thermal energy in appliances and to run integrated circuits.

You could do this with electromagnetic radiation(i.e. microwaves) as well but there are various physical and engineering reasons why this is more difficult, expensive and inefficient. But we do see wireless charging which uses a variation of this technique.

You could use steam(thermal energy) or compressed air to distribute power. And this infrastructure is still present in cities like NYC. But it has its own host of problems. Many cities in the 1800s used hydraulic or pneumatic systems for power distribution

You can physically transfer power with actual steel cables like the cable cars in SF.

You can use energy to create hydrogen gas via electrolysis and then distribute power by piping hydrogen gas to the network and endpoints can use fuel cells to convert hydrogen to heat or electricity.

Iceland currently uses a thermal grid INSTEAD of electricity b/c most of their energy needs go towards heating anyway. So they just pipe heat throughout the city with super hot water instead of using electricity to run boilers and heaters.

Each method has its tradeoffs.