« Hypermilers - are they all nutters? | Home | Web Sites Help You See How Much You Save On Gas »
Hypermilers - who are they and what do they do?
With gas reaching record prices and no relief in site, a new club of people is taking over the roadways. They are called the “hypermilers.” They don’t wear any club colors—at least, not at this time. You can only regconize them by their obsessive attention to maximizing the gas per mile usage of their cars.
The term “hypermiler” seems to have originated with the early hybrid-vehicle driving clubs whose club members would actively compete to see who could succeed in going beyond the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s ( EPA) probable fuel efficiency.
By utilizing real-time mileage displays, hypermilers are able to identify the driving techniques that deliver the best EPA ratings. Once identified, these techniques could be tweaked and polished.
This tendency began within a competitive atmosphere of drivers who put their hypermiling genius to the test in hypermileage marathons. However as gas prices in the United States began an unprecedented ascent in 2007, hypermiling began to draw the attention of the media.
Nowadays, the average hypermiler is less likely to be a hybrid-driving competitor and far more likely to be normal employed man or woman trying to squeak some more miles out of a gasoline budget that has begun taking a bigger and bigger bite out of the typical domestic finances.
Not surprisingly owners of luxury SUV’s, the vehicle of choice for the more affluent households in America, are showing a growing interest in hypermiling, hoping that a few tricks performed behind the steering wheel will lead to less sticker shock at the gas pump.
Avid hypermilers claim they can get an increase in mileage of better than 40%. Lots of them claim they’ve taken vehicles with an average miles-per-gallon rating of 27mpg and easily increased it to 40 mpg.
How do they do this? Hypermilers rely on all the old stand-bys for saving gas, like driving the speed limit and making sure their tires are inflated according to the manufactures recommendation.
But they also rely heavily on a new technique of accelerating their automobile to the posted legal speed, then coasting as far as possible the need for further acceleration.
Truly avid hypermilers, however, take it one step further, by making modifications to the body of their car to make it more streamlined and thus more fuel-efficient.
Some of them make use of fiberglass and sheet metal for their modifications and strive to make their cars look like ordinary cars. Others care little for good looks, and just use parts from abandoned cars, redundant roadway and other odds and ends of scrap metal to modify the look of their automobile.
Although the term hypermiling has been distincly associated with America, the concept of increasing fuel efficiency appeals to people worldwide. In Europe, where gas prices have long been much higher than prices in the United States., the term “ecodriving” is used to illustrate tactics and techniques that can be utilized by almost all drivers to ensure energy-efficient use of their cars.
Regardless of where on the planet they live and what they choose to call themselves, most people today will agree that the good old days of low-cost gas and fuel guzzlling cars are over. Dwindling fuel resources, rising prices and the dangers of pollution and global warming are all indicators that hypermiling and ecodriving will soon be lasting parts of not only the world vocabulary, but also the world conscience.
Get the most out of your own gas mileage with our Hypermiling Secrets
« Hypermilers - are they all nutters? | Home | Web Sites Help You See How Much You Save On Gas »
Leave a Comment