Why are the rear brake discs on my Renault Koleos wearing faster than the fronts?

I run a Renault Koleos Privilege 150, and a cracking car it is. I can't think why they stopped selling it. It recently went for its first MoT and I was surprised to be told that the rear brake pads needed replacing after about 26,000 miles. I put it down to the fact that the Koleos has an electric parking brake. However, a friend of mine found the same thing with his Freelander 2, which does not have that braking system. Is this a peculiarity of 4x4s? We would both love to know the reason.
If a car has electric rear brakes it will have soft rear pads that work well as parking brake pads but less well as high speed stopping pads. In fact, 95 per cent of a car's braking is at the front, so the rear pads rarely touch the discs, which is why overnight rust does not always get cleaned off them and why rear discs need replacing first.
Answered by Honest John on

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