Hey Rat, I'm glad to see you created this thread. There are
many ways to save fuel (or electrons, in an EV). Most people don't realize it, but hypermiling works as well, using the same principles, with EV's (electric vehicles) as it does with ICE's (internal combustion engines).
1) The higher the air pressure in your tires, the less rolling resistance. I know you mentioned this already, but I'm going to mention it again, but differently. Most of the tires sold in the US have a "rated" PSI (pounds per square inch, or air pressure) that the manufacturer of that tire deems safe. For the average passenger car and truck tire, this is rating 45 PSI. The majority of tires have this rating right on the sidewall. For other tires, you'll need to look it up online, at the manufacturers website.
The reason I mention this is because the difference in MPG (miles per gallon) between the 32-34 PSI that your car's manufacturer recommends and 45 PSI is noticeable at the pump. I personally run 50 PSI in the LLR (low rolling resistance) tires that I have on my car, and I get better MPG @ 50 PSI than I did @ 45 PSI. This is the same reason that all tractor trailers, aka 18-wheelers, run 110-120 PSI in their tires. Those pressures aren't safe in passenger car tires, BTW. Our vehicles use radials, and Kenworths and Peterbuilts don't. They use tires designed for air pressures that high.
2) Speed does in fact kill. It kills MPG for any ICE engined vehicle, and it kills range for EV's. Every time you double your speed,
it requires eight times as much horsepower because of increased aerodynamic drag, or wind resistance, as most people who aren't engineers usually call it. Want better fuel mileage, or better range (electron mileage
)? Slow down.
3) Acceleration of any type hurts fuel or electron mileage.
A lot. It hurts your mileage even worse than driving fast. Wonder why? Because getting any object moving requires more work than keeping it moving. This is the reason it takes so much more effort to get your bicycle moving than it requires to keep it moving. Even accelerating slowly requires more energy (fuel or electrons) than maintaining a reasonable speed does.
4) Do your best never to stop your vehicle. Remember, all acceleration uses energy (fuel or electrons/battery power), and the more you have to accelerate, the lower your range or gas mileage will be. Note that I'm not only talking about how
often you accelerate, but also the speed from which you started accelerating. It requires a considerable amount more energy to accelerate a vehicle that's completely stopped back up to 35 or 40 MPH (or any speed, actually) than it does one that never got below 2 or 3 MPH. If you were able to never go below 10 MPH, accelerating back up to speed would require a lot less energy than accelerating from 2 or 3 MPH would.
What does this mean to you? Should you start running stop signs and stop lights? Of course not. But when you notice the stop light in front of you has turned red, instead of waiting until just before you run into the stopped car in front of you to start braking, take your foot off the accelerator immediately and start coasting. Coasting uses less fuel than not coasting. If your vehicle has a standard transmission, always coast with the clutch pedal depressed. If you end up needing to use your brakes, do that early also. Remember, anything to keep from bringing your car to a complete stop. Don't break any laws, but as long as you aren't breaking laws, you'll be saving energy/fuel/electrons/battery power.
Want proof that this works? I get my best fuel mileage on the freeway, during rush hour, or in what most people I know call "stop and go traffic". Wonder how? It's because I almost never stop. I'm driving very slowly (remember, speed kills), never stopping, and doing my best to accelerate as little as possible. Those three things when combined equal great fuel mileage. If I were braking to a stop, almost immediately accelerating back up to 25 or 30 MPH (the speed depends on the day and which freeway you're on), then braking to a complete stop again, like all of the other cars on the freeway are doing, I'd be getting utterly horrible mileage.
Instead, I get well over 50 MPG during the times of the year that I don't have to use the air conditioner (Texas is quite hot), and roughly 50 MPG during A/C weather. That's not too bad for a car that the EPA said got 35 MPG on the highway in 2000, and now says it
gets 30 MPG highway. My car is at the bottom of the page, the 1.8L, 4 speed automatic. Note, my car does not get over 50 MPG on the interstate @ 60-70 MPH, and I never said it did. If you thought you read that, you are mistaken, and need to read the last two paragraphs again.
I average ~45 MPG on the interstate.
5) Now, my secret weapon. At least I think its a secret. I've never seen it written anywhere, or ever heard anyone say it out loud, either. What am I talking about? Stop trying to fight gravity. Not setting your cruise control, or trying to maintain the same speed on the highway. Yeah, you heard me right. Pay attention to how much throttle is required to maintain say, 65 MPH in your vehicle. Now, notice how much more throttle is required to maintain 65 MPH while going uphill. For an average Texas hill, my car requires 90-95 MPH worth of throttle pressure. I know this because after topping a hill, I didn't relax the throttle pressure, and after topping that particular hill, the ground was level. Feel free to duplicate this experiment in your own vehicle.
Now, I know what you're thinking, "Since I take my foot (most of the way) off of the throttle while going back down the other side of the hill, it equals out." No, it doesn't. It makes up for a bit of the fuel you wasted trying to maintain whatever speed up that hill, but nowhere near all of it. It doesn't because of a lot of different factors, the biggest of which is engine braking. Engine braking is the reason you don't have to ride your brakes all the way down that same hill, and also the reason that you can't remove your foot completely from the throttle, even while going downhill, or you'll start slowing down (for the majority of hills, at least).
So, what do you do? Nothing. Nothing at all. As you start up the hill, don't give your vehicle more throttle. You'll slow down a little, but probably not as much as you thought you would. Then, as you crest the hill, again, do nothing. You'll magically, with the help of gravity, regain not only the speed you lost going uphill, but also gain a few MPH in a lot of instances. This free gravity assist will help propel you up the next hill. Use gravity to your advantage anytime you can, instead of always trying to fight it. Just ask your mother or grandmother, if you don't think fighting gravity is a useless endeavor.
6) If your vehicle isn't in motion, it shouldn't be in "gear". This applies to those of us with an automatic transmission, since a manual transmission can't be stopped without depressing the clutch, and depressing the clutch disengages that gear/the transmission, effectively putting the car into neutral.
Think I'm crazy? Take your foot off of the brake while your car is stopped. It won't remain stopped, it will start (slowly) accelerating, assuming its an automatic. It was trying to do that all along (accelerate), but you were keeping it from being able to, by having your foot on the brakes. This has the same effect on your fuel burn rate (at a stop light) that driving down the road with your foot lightly on the brake would have. In other words, it puts a slightly higher workload on your engine, resulting in a slightly higher rate of fuel burn.
This obviously doesn't save as much fuel as the other 5 hints, but every little bit helps. While saving "only" 1 or 1½ MPG may not seem like much, saving 1 or 1½ MPG x 5, or 6, or 7 all of a sudden can be saving you some serious MPG/money. How much you'll save will depend not only on your vehicle, but on you. It takes awhile to get good at these tricks, so the longer you practice them, the better you'll get, and the more you'll save.
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