Hybrid Mileage Without The Hybrid
CNN reported on a fuel economy advocate who has doubled the mileage of his conventional vehicle. Wayne Gerdes and the members of CleanMPG claim to have saved 158,618 gallons of fuel by applying techniques called “hypermiling” to improve the fuel economy of their gasoline-powered vehicles. Gerdes, who drives a Honda Accord, says he gets about 50 MPG.
By keeping tires inflated to their maximum limits, using clean air and fuel filters, low viscosity engine oil and turning the engine off at stoplights, Gerdes says that fuel economy can be improved substantially. Experts warn that there’s a price to be paid for over-inflating tires, in the form of poor traction control and uneven tread wear. If you plan to modify the tire pressure of your vehicle, don’t exceed the manufacturer’s safety recommendations for your tires. This is especially important for trucks, vans and SUVs.
Changing to low-viscosity oil also comes with some caveats. If you live in an area where heat reaches high extremes, or you do a lot of towing with your vehicle, low-viscosity oil may not be the ticket to better fuel economy. Instead, it can cause extreme engine wear and shorten its expected life. Use careful judgment when changing engine oil to a weight other than one the manufacturer recommends.
Additional good suggestions for increasing fuel economy include braking and accelerating smoothly, traveling at or below the speed limit, and timing your driving to avoid having to slow or stop the vehicle. On the highways, maximize your mileage in a conventional vehicle by using the cruise control, if you have one. Otherwise, maintain a constant speed as much as possible.
Gerdes advocates cutting the engine at stop lights. In terms of fuel economy, stop-start technology can wring an extra 8%-10% out of your vehicle’s mileage rating. The built in technologies are optimized to make the most of stop-start. It’s not clear that manual stopping and starting will achieve that much of an improvement. Additionally, built-in stop-start technologies rely on a high-performance starter, which most conventional vehicles don’t have. If you apply stop-start religiously to your driving habits, you could end up replacing your starter sooner than you planned.
Sources: CNN, CleanMPG
June 5, 2008 - by admin · Filed Under Gas Mileage, Hybrid Cars |
