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A very through and detailed article on hypermiling with plenty of input from the members here. (http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea0172)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Jimbo_K_Jim_Kelly_Ready_for_launch_at_HF2007.jpgTerril Yue Jones (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/member.php?u=1813) - Edmonds – Nov 2, 2007

CHESTERFIELD, Virginia -- Jim Kelly plods along a back country road, hugging the right side of the right lane of two going in his direction.

He constantly looks for traffic, both behind him and far ahead. “That red light’s not likely to change in the next couple of minutes,” he says, pointing to the signal hanging over the road 500 meters or so ahead, “so there’s no need to hurry.”

He builds up to 30 mph in his 2005 Toyota Prius hybrid, slows to 16, accelerates to 28, then slows back down again.

Kelly is using one of the techniques of “hypermiling,” the fine art of wringing the greatest fuel economy possible from a vehicle through a bagful of driving techniques… http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea0172

That was a very well written piece. Glad to see all the positive exposure for the site and its members. Terril did an excellent job

I really enjoyed this article. I will be forwarding the link to several friends.

“This is great,” he says. “Now I can go 20 miles per hour on a 55 road.” Without being the bad guy all the others drivers hate.

And that's a great opportunity to P&G.

Great article, I agree,


PierreM

Great article.
Lousy comment posted in the "comments" section that follows.
Time for some good folks here to speak up on that comments board, I think.

That's better now.
Thanks, ilaveo!
I put in my .02 also.

Guys, please be careful with the comments over there. Antagonism will only serve to undo the good image Terril's well written article strives to portray. If at all possible, the best responses are those that present simple facts about attitude and methods such that it is clear that we are not an ire rousing crowd and that we are in fact not interested solely in good mileage to the complete exclusion of all else.

We want to continue to reinforce the courteous image Terril has so graciously and accurately portrayed!

Guys, please be careful with the comments over there. Antagonism will only serve to undo the good image Terril's well written article strives to portray. If at all possible, the best responses are those that present simple facts about attitude and methods such that it is clear that we are not an ire rousing crowd and that we are in fact not interested solely in good mileage to the complete exclusion of all else.

We want to continue to reinforce the courteous image Terril has so graciously and accurately portrayed!Yes, be careful - they are a general automotive forum, so you have your gearheads and such.

It will be tonight before I have a chance to see what the remarks are over there, but over the couple dozen hypermiler articles published this year, I've seen some pretty incindentary flame bait.

A good approach is to mention your experiences before and after hypermiling. For myself: "I've gotten about 30% better FE, experienced less stress on myself and the car, avoided a number of tickets and accidents. I hear the remainder of the Mike & Mike show on ESPN Radio in the car instead of my office. Rude drivers don't get to me as much - part tuning them out, part keeping rightward." Flamers will have a hard time rationally responding to such testamonial....if they want to rant about a Prius going 50 in the HOV lane, people will see their childnessness.

I am pleased with the article, and I hope that it tempts another person to try hypermiling. I need company in the slow lane.

Someone tell "firstwagon" over there that if he was at proper
following distance, speed variations of a car ahead wouldn't
matter to him in the slightest. He's making much more work
for himself by trying to track every slightest nuance because
he's crammed up against the other car's butt.
.
_H*

Someone tell "firstwagon" over there that if he was at proper
following distance, speed variations of a car ahead wouldn't
matter to him in the slightest. He's making much more work
for himself by trying to track every slightest nuance because
he's crammed up against the other car's butt.
.
_H*Looks like firstwagon may be a troller/tailgater.

Hypermiling seems to be gaining popularity because the cost of energy continues to go up. Simple supply and demand, right?
Ahhh, the old ploy on supply and demand!! If supply gets short, then we can charge more. SOOO, lets create a shortage!! Used by the corrugated box industry many timesin the past. Used by natural gas whenever possible. Their friends, the oil industry, burn off half the natural gas recovered (see Clean MPG article last week on the oil industrys practice of "flaming") and that creates a great shortage! How many natural gas vehicles do you see that could burn the plentiful gas that our "responsible, concerned" oil companies are burning off to warm the globe! And, OF COURSE, this scam is a mainstay with the oil industry. They give us a lame excuse and, BINGO, billions and billions of beautiful windfall profits!!

But, alas, Hypermilers are still a rare comodity. I fear we are going to have to let these cartels steal our standard of living before we have much company in the right lane.

I work with a nice lady here that is buying herself a new V-8 SUV. I drive the speed limit on the Interstate and EVERYONE passes me. No one (save hypermilers) can see the writing on the wall.

Yours in hypermiling,

Bob.

I work with a nice lady here that is buying herself a new V-8 SUV. I drive the speed limit on the Interstate and EVERYONE passes me. No one (save hypermilers) can see the writing on the wall.

Exactly. The price of gasoline has zoomed up in the last week, and people are buying SUV gas-hogs at this very moment.

I will take exception to your characterization of the gasoline/energy marketplace. Peak Oil is already behind us according to recent reports. Energy demand is increasing around the world just as supplies have begun their inevitable decline. More people wanting scarcer resources mean higher prices. I heard someone on the radio just this morning warning of $4.50+ /gallong gasoline, and soon. People love to blame big oil while they drive around getting 15 mpg. That is the height of hypocrisy.

We had a construction project west of where I live, with a work zone speed limit of only 45 mph. Instead of getting mad, I was glad, because in my Prius I was getting 60+ mpg in that work zone, instead of my usual 50+ mpg.

Harry

Nice write up. :)

These days, I love construction and rush-hour traffic. Well,
except for the people. Those I could do without. Too bad that
the modern automobile isn't a good population-control tool.
.
_H*

I still think that the motivation will get here quick. I got bored one day last week so I went sifting through the gasbuddy price charts to see how the price of oil really correlates to the price of gasoline at the pump. So I did a back-of-the-envelope calc using a couple dozen data points over the year during 2006, and came up with a rough (but relatively robust) relationship of ($/gal gas) = ($/bbl oil)/25.6) for the reported national average. What's funny is that the relationship was great for that time period but broke down with the recent rise in oil prices. Are we just playing catch-up with a nasty [not so] surprise around the corner? Right now we're looking at $94-ish oil which works out to about $3.67/gal. That ought to put the more expensive states easily over $4.00 average and the cheaper states like my own into the mid-$3.00 range. I have very little faith (almost none at all) in people, but I do have faith in the real power of green: money. At some point, looking rich via a huge, powerful automobile will take a back seat to the economics of living in an increasingly expensive world.

So get ready. They're going to show up looking for help, and we're going to have to bite out tongues when the words "I told you so" shoot to the surface. Hypermiling is about the only zero-cost relief available and we won't want to lose the opportunity to help when it comes.

I got bored one day last week so I went sifting through the gasbuddy price charts to see how the price of oil really correlates to the price of gasoline at the pump. So I did a back-of-the-envelope calc using a couple dozen data points over the year during 2006 ... What's funny is that the relationship was great for that time period but broke down with the recent rise in oil prices.

You can plot that easily here, just check the box "show crude oil price" and rehit "create chart"
http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx?time=24

Uh, talk about the relationship breaking down! ;) I'm wondering why 100 million drivers haven't stampeded the pumps already (gas is up 10c this week here).