Easy hydraulic brake question...
 

I understand the fluid line, but why is there also an electrical line coming out of my Tektro Zoom brake levers?

Electronic braking. It is the latest New Thing.

My guess is that it is for an e-bike, so that the motor cuts out when you apply the brakes.

That's it!

I feel like a noobie but, hey, when it comes to disc brakes...I AM a noobie!

It might have a similar functionality for shifting, especially if it is mid-drive.

Actually, the wire connects to the controller to activate regenerative braking

Maybe. I am trying hard to think of the production e-bike that has regen as an OEM feature. It is certainly 'possible' that a set of Tektro e-brake levers might be attached to a system with regen, but it is far more likely and typical that the electrical line from the brakes to the controller senses braking effort for the reason given earlier: motor cutoff, because having the motor remaining powered while braking is wasteful, if not possibly dangerous. The momentary ducking of motor energy for smooth shifting is usually triggered by electric lines coming directly from the shift lever(s) or the shift cable(s).

Some systems may offer regen and some systems will simply cut the motor power, but the brake lever function is the same in any case -- it's simply a switch to tell the e-bike control unit that the rider has activated the brake. Depending on the bike, the control unit may go through several logic steps to determine what to do next, but the answer to the question posed in the original post is the same: it's an electrical switch used in e-bike applications. It can be ignored (and sometimes even removed from the lever entirely) if used in a conventional bike application.

The bike is an Aventon Pace 500, about a year old.
Entry level price of $1,400 but pretty decent quality in my opinion.
No regenerating braking system, for sure.

That's some good bait!:thumb: