Gas For Less Money

NOTE: The 2008 “ULTIMATE Hypermiling Guide!” is now available!

Hypermiling is a set of methods for getting better gas mileage by changing the way you drive. Hypermiling has gotten a bad name recently through a number of articles and news stories demonstrating only the most extreme techniques.

Fortunately, there are a number of techniques to hypermiling, and few of them are extreme.

The first step is to kow and begin recording your mpg. In fact, this is one of the most important steps for all of “Gas For Less Money”.

Click here for a guide to Calculate Gas Mileage.

Minimize Stops. Since you get zero miles per gallon stopped, you want to minimize the time you are stopped with your engine running. One of the keys to hypermiling is to be moving whenever your car is running. When you see a red light coming up, immediately take your foot off the gas. Even better, try to think ahead - if the light ahead has been green for a while (a “stale” green light), it’s fair to assume it will be changing shortly.  See brakelights up ahead? Take your foot off the accelerator. Cruise control? Disengage it before you have to start braking.

Drive less aggressively. It is estimated that most drivers brake 20% more than necessary. Braking always brings your mpg to zero. By keeping more distance between you and the cars in front of you, you can brake less often. Short starts and stops are also prime culprits. Do you really need to jump in front of another car, or be first in line at a light?

Let your foot off the gas the minute you see a red light in front of you. And think ahead, even if you don’t see a red light: maybe there is a big street coming up, or maybe there is a ’stale’ green light (a light that has been green a long time & you suspect it may go yellow before too long.)

Try to minimize the time you spend fully stopped with your engine idling. The minute — no, the second — that you see brakelights in front of you, take your foot off of the accelerator pedal, or hit the cancel button on your cruise control, and stop burning the gas that you know you’ll be using up at zero mpg while you are stopped.

Accelerate slowly. Accelerating is when your engine is using the most gas, and often using it inefficiently. With Hypermiling, you accelerate more slowly, allowing your engine to take full advantage of the gas it is getting.

Drafting. This is perhaps the only “dangerous” technique in Hypermiling, and the most controversial. WE DO NOT RECOMMEND DRAFTING. Drafting is the concept of driving close enough to the vehicle in front of you that your wind resistance is lowered. Trucks, busses, etc. create areas of ‘low pressure’ directly behind them; driving in this zone, or drafting, is almost like driving downhill. Drafting is the reason you see professional race car drivers tailgating each other, to take advantage of low-pressure space directly behind it.

Again, we don’t recommend drafting; it can be very dangerous. You can, however, drive behind trucks on the highway at a safe distance and still receive some hypermiling benefit.