Hypermiling

Increasing fuel efficiency by Hypermiling

With recent fuel prices reaching every higher heights no matter what country you are in there will be a desire to increase the fuel economy of your car. One simply way to get more miles to the gallon is to use a number of driving techniques to improve your fuel efficiency. This technique is known as "Hypermiling" and is rapidly catching on all over the world!

Hypermilers will use a variety of techniques to improve the fuel efficiency, usually helped with the aid of the real time mileage displays that come with modern cars. Using hypermiling techniques can drastically improve your miles per gallon, often improving greatly on the manufacturers stated fuel consumption figures.

The word Hypermiling originates from the hybrid vehicle driving clubs where people began to compare fuel efficiency of their engines. These people became Hypermilers, and the term stuck.

What do HyperMilers do?

Hypermiling means going to extraordinary lengths to improve the fuel efficiency, using a wide variety of techniques and practices. Some of these are perfectly safe and legal, others are more extreme and may compromise safety, whilst some hypermiling techniques are downright stupid! Some of the safer ways to hypermile are included in our page on Improving Fuel Efficiency .

Hypermiling is catching on pretty quickly in the USA where cars traditionally have a much lower fuel efficiency than in Europe.

Some of the more intelligent ways of saving fuel and being a hypermiler include:

  • Running without Air Conditioning
  • Keep the windows closed
  • Keep the engine in good nick
  • Remove excess weight from the car (all that junk in the boot?)
  • Anticipate the traffic

Some tactics used by Hypermilers are more dangerous or downright irresponsible and we do not condone any of these hypermiling techniques. Some of the more extreme measures taken by Hypermilers include (we do not suggest you try any of these!)

  • Overinflating tyres
  • Pulse and Glide (Accelerate up to speed and then glide to a stop)
  • Tailgating (really really stupid idea)
  • Coasting with the engine off (again really stupid)

There are Hypermiling clubs springing up all over the place where groups of hypermilers get together and compete on specific routes to become the most fuel efficient driver in that club. The hypermilers are forever competing, honing their fuel saving skills and trying to reduce those all important Miles Per Gallon.

Hypermiling and Cheaper Fuel

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