[extropy-chat] Hybrid cars not fuel economic in real world driving

[Alfio Puglisi]

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004, BillK wrote:

>On Fri Jun 11 13:38:42 MDT 2004 Mike Lorrey wrote:
>> The problem with hybrid cars isn't the technology, it's the user. If
>> you are a lead foot (or a heavy braker) with a old style car, your
>> poor fuel economy is not going to magically improve with a hybrid car
>> if you don't learn to drive more normally.
>
>
>This is very true. In Europe and UK they have annual competitive car
>economy runs where the drivers achieve unbelievable mileage figures,
>just by using careful driving techniques.

As Mike implies, there's a simple driving technique which is very
effective in getting a good fuel economy, especially in an urban
evironment which is usually the worst for a car: brake as less as
possible.
Every time you brake you'll need to accelerate again, thus wasting fuel.
Now, sometimes you really have to brake (say, to stop at a red light), but
often you could just keep a larger distance from the car in front of you,
so that you will not need to brake if they slow down and accelerate again.
Even that red light is not a sure sign of stopping: brake early, and slow
down to say 15 mph instead of stopping. Most of the time the light will be
green when you arrive there, and you'll save the 0-15mph fuel.

This way, you also break the disruptive "traffic waves" that cause lots
of queues - a wave of cars slowing down, each a bit more than the
preceding one, until a standing wave of stopped cars forms. Break it by
braking early and refusing to stop.

Another one, not applicable to the automatic gearbox of US cars: when
going uphill, push heavily on the pedal but keep the highest possible
gear. This way you keep the engine in the max efficency range, which is at
fairly low rpm and high load.

Alfio