Hypermiling to increase your MPG

CountingDown · Post by **CountingDown** » 22 Apr 2009, 20:47

52 mpg over a 60 mile trip - might have got closer to 60 mpg if I'd just measured the motorway section.

5/7 seater 1.9 Diesel Touran BlueMotion, 5 people, travelling at 70.

I'll take up your challenge next time we do a long trip though

Pip · Post by **Pip** » 05 May 2009, 14:22

After spending much of my pre-peak knowledge life as a confirmed petrol head, this is the first time I've really considered this - going fast was far too fun.

But this thread intrigued me, so I decided to give it a go. After a round trip from Dulwich (S.E London) to Reading and back (Approx 60 miles), involving Central London at one extreme and a clear and free flowing M4 at the other, I averaged 42.25mpg. Which doesn't look that impressive compared to the figures earlier in the thread, but when you consider that this was not in a diesel or a hybrid, but a V reg MGF with the thick end of 70,000 on the clock, I didn't think it was so bad

I'd normally get approx 30/32mpg out of the car, not not a bad improvement at all, and I'd expect far better if the journey didn't involve 45 to 60 mins stop start in London traffic.

CountingDown · Post by **CountingDown** » 05 May 2009, 14:58

To be honest, that looks pretty good.

My latest was 55.5 mpg on the trip to CAT (thought I had to well on that one) 65 miles of country lanes with four of us in the car.

lots of stop-start and single lane road s with tractors!

Pip · Post by **Pip** » 05 May 2009, 16:04

Yeah I didn't think it was too bad, though not a patch on your 55...

It's not really the ideal car for it though, or for dealing with PO in general really, but I need a car for work and can't really afford to change it at the moment

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 05 May 2009, 16:57

Mines still 10mpl
300miles for 30 litres.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 05 May 2009, 21:29

DominicJ wrote:Mines still 10mpl
300miles for 30 litres.

Same with our crate and there's bog-all I can do to improve the mpg because I can't drive

In mitigation:
1. Our crate's got style (if you like that kind o'thing)
2. It doesn't do many miles these days

CountingDown · Post by **CountingDown** » 05 May 2009, 21:31

RenewableCandy wrote: 2. It doesn't do many miles these days

Ultimately that's the answer!

Pip · Post by **Pip** » 11 May 2009, 22:11

Had to do (almost) exactly the same route this weekend, so by way of comparison and scientific experiment (honest!) drove in my 'normal' driving style to see the difference between it and using hypermiling techniques. After achieving 42.25mpg using hypermiling, I did 38.5 mpg driving without conciously altering my driving style in any way from the norm.

So not a huge difference really (3.75mpg to save you the maths).

My car has an 11 gallon tank, so I would gain an extra 41.25 miles per tank by 'hypermiling.' Every little helps of course, but not the solid difference I was hoping for really...

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 13 May 2009, 14:40

Hmmm, that difference does seem small. To be a touch more scientific, I think you would need to try both styles of driving on the same route another time at least. This would then give you an indication of variability to determine if the original figures were reliably representative.

I am doing 70 miles on Friday night in my hybrid, that should involve a fair bit of motorway and dual carriageway, although through Belfast first, so I will check how I get on and report back.

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 11 Aug 2009, 08:59

Took a while, but have now remembered to report back. I drove 65 miles to the North coast in my Honda Civic Hybrid at the weekend just gone and got 57mpg - this is for a petrol car! Have now done a total of 187 miles including some urban driving and have got 52.7 mpg currently. I am pretty pleased with this.

We drove to Newcastle upon Tyne again to collect my son and all his belongings. The Megane 1.5 diesel had done 75mpg by the time we got into Newcastle!

Just shows you what you can do if you drive like "an old granny"! I admit I have become a fuel miser.

Bandidoz · Post by **Bandidoz** » 11 Aug 2009, 09:07

75mpg? Wow, that's fantastic!

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 11 Aug 2009, 10:33

75 mpg is more like it, though still extremely poor after over a century of 'development'.

Not to be down on you, snow, you're way above the average.

But surely, 57 mpg from a hybrid...errr, what's all the hype? Are they big, heavy cars or what? Does this seemingly good mpg includes lots of passengers and goods being carried? You know what I mean. The word 'hybrid' is bandied about as if it's going to 'save the planet'!

We get anything up to 60 mpg in our petrol, 7-year-old Polo and these cars are not light compared to some. We're carrying around a lot of air and packaging to get from A to B so I only like using the damned thing when there's at least two people in it and a few jobs to do.

Otherwise, in the grand scheme of things, it's an awful waste of resources.

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 11 Aug 2009, 13:29

Many 4 door petrol cars - focus, vectra, scenic, etc seem to get about 35mpg for normal driving. 40mpg is normally considered quite frugal. Hence why I thought into the 50s was good. Maybe I am out of touch with what petrol cars are doing to the gallon these days...... but yes, hybrids aren't anything particularly special. Maybe when the plug-in variety arrive they will be better!

Pip · Post by **Pip** » 11 Aug 2009, 22:09

Yes, hybrids at the moment are not the magic panecea they are made out to be (no offence to anyone who owns one!). There are cars with diesel engines - VW Polo Bluemotion springs to mind - that can achieve in excess of these 'into the 50's' mpg figures without hybrid technology. There are even small petrol engined cars that will come close.

However, as hybrid technology improves I would expect to see this situation alter - at the moment after all it's still relitavely young technology.

Sadly haven't managed to improve on my scientific experiment with the old MG yet (see further up the thread). But as soon as funds improve I'm aiming to replace it (with a great deal of sadness in many ways) with something a wee bit more PO friendly!

CountingDown · Post by **CountingDown** » 12 Aug 2009, 13:27

We have settled into getting 57-61mpg regularly on long runs (1-2hrs). Not bad for a seven-seater car usually full of luggage and kids!

No, not a hybrid, VW Touran BlueMotion. Quite happy with it so far - the Polo BlueMotion must get some great mileage though as it's about half the size.