Just like with extracting the last tenth of a second of performance out of a car on a track, extracting maximum fuel economy isn't intuitive and needs to be learned, and, for any given car, modifications to the driver yield far better results than any modifications to the car.
I consistently beat EPA ratings in anything I drive.
My wife's Camry Hybrid is rated 43 city, 37 highway. I get 55 on trips that're mostly highway. And people having figured out how to get 100 mpg out of its sibling, the Prius. We're a huge factor in the MPG equation.
I'd be curious how much less oil we'd import if Driver's Ed included how to maximize fuel economy.
There are many "tricks" I use, but most of them revolve around two rules of thumb. Let the car slow down a bit going uphill and let it speed up a bit going downhill (helpful on the gentle rolling hills around here), and coast just as much as you can if you won't inconvenience anyone else in doing so. The brakes are the enemy. A perfect example is the highway that runs close to my house. If I don't have traffic behind me (I usually don't), I'll coast for a mile or more and let the car gradually slow down enough that I don't need to use my brakes to make my turn. In that mile, I use zero fuel rather than the several tablespoons I'd use maintaining 60 mph until the last moment and using the brakes. It's all about spending as little as possible gaining or maintaining momentum, and not throwing it away once you've got it.
Also, there's a bit of inconvenience involved, but it's worth it if you're trying for a new MPG record and I saw that it's mentioned in the article.
All modern cars completely cut fuel flow when you're coasting at a decent speed. Whether they're automatic or stick. But if you have the AC on the idle speed is kicked up, so the fuel delivery doesn't get cut when you're coasting. If I'm coasting, I turn off the AC, then turn it back on when I'm back in the throttle.
Although it seems big diesels (and maybe little ones?) don't raise the idle speed when the AC's on because they have so much torque they hardly notice the compressor.
It'd help fuel economy immensely if at the same time the computer were stopping fuel flow, it'd prop an exhaust valve partially open in each cylinder so you wouldn't have your engine turn into a huge air compressor to slow you down more. And it'd be easy enough to have the engine give you engine braking if you're going down a steeper hill.
I think the most important thing that needs to happen with hybrids, though, is incorporating turbo-diesel engines. VW makes a couple of diesel-engined cars that not only rival hybrids for fuel economy, they launch like they're not running on lawnmower engines (though the Camry is a neck-snapper from about 0 to 40). I'd think a diesel version of the Camry Hybrid would do 70 mpg or more very easily. |
