My interview on Chronicle

ksstathead · #11 06-15-2012, 03:57 PM

Very nice job Neil and hobbit, and any of the other stars who frequent this board.

ItsNotAboutTheMoney · #12 06-15-2012, 07:52 PM

That was one of the better pieces I've seen on hypermiling so I'll forgive the "turn over a new LEAF" pun.

NeilBlanchard · #13 06-15-2012, 09:30 PM

Glad you enjoyed it! It really was fun to do. They covered things pretty well; I only would have included a few additional details about things like pumping up your tires and using the engine to slow down, and the like.

herm · #14 06-16-2012, 07:45 AM

Congratulations to Neil, Janet and Hobbit.. great job!

That was a very nice show. I wish someone had hypermiled a Leaf, maybe in the future when there are more on the road.

ItsNotAboutTheMoney · #15 06-16-2012, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Glad you enjoyed it! It really was fun to do. They covered things pretty well; I only would have included a few additional details about things like pumping up your tires and using the engine to slow down, and the like.

My only criticism is really being light on the basics. It was positive about hypermiling but still made it seem a little extreme and odd. (No offense to you or Hobbit

). As Hobbit said, the first 20% is easy. I think they could have explained that 20% pretty concisely with less FAS and more on DWB. It explained that braking was wasted momentum, showed fast turns and mentioned accordion driving (basically, the effect of buffering) but it didn't really get the essentials down, in particularly failing to emphasize the anticipatory focus. (I'd love to see a piece with a good hypermiler narrating their drive in traffic demonstrating just how much difference it makes.)

I give it a B+ in a class that generally struggles to pass.

PS Your sister-in-law very obviously loves her LEAF and has a perfect commute for it.

herm · #16 06-16-2012, 09:37 AM

Editing is always an issue with these shows, fortunately the producers were sympathetic

NeilBlanchard · #17 06-16-2012, 10:55 AM

Yes, my sister-in-law Janet is not (yet!) a hypermiler. She is very happy to be gas free and the Leaf still probably beats most of us in actual efficiency. My brother Nathan is pretty good driving it, and he earns several "trees" and he often uses less than 200Wh/mile. He is a UPS driver and he was coming off a night shift and was sleeping at the time they drove with Janet.

I agree on most of the points made so far. They do have links on the web page that have lots more details; and if anyone wants to post links to hypermiling FAQ's that would be great. I have already posted a lot there, and I don't want to overwhelm the conversation.