|
 |
 |
With gas hitting record prices and no relief in site, a new gang is taking over the roadways. They call themselves the “hypermilers.” They don’t wear club jackets—at least, not yet. You can only identify them by their obsessive attention to maximizing their car’s gas mileages. The term “hypermiler” seems to have originated with hybrid-vehicle driving clubs whose members actively compete to see who can go furthest in exceeding the EPA’s (United States Environmental Protection Agency’s) estimated fuel efficiency. By using real-time mileage displays, hypermilers are able to pinpoint the driving techniques that deliver the best EPA ratings. Once identified, these techniques can be tweaked and refined. The trend started out within a competitive atmosphere of drivers who put their hypermiling talents to the test in hypermileage marathons. But as gas prices in the United States began an unprecedented climb in 2007, hypermiling began to draw media attention. Today, the average hypermiler is less likely to be a hybrid-driving competitor and more likely to be a working man or woman trying to squeak some extra miles out of a gas budget that’s begun taking a bigger and bigger bite out of the typical household budget. Even drivers of luxury SUV’s, the vehicles favored by the more affluent families in America, are showing an increasing interest in hypermiling, hoping that a few tricks performed behind the wheel will lead to less sticker shock in front of the gas pump. Avid hypermilers claim they can increase their mileage by better than forty percent. Many say they’ve taken automobiles with an average miles-per-gallon rating of 27mpg and easily gotten to 40 mpg. How is this accomplished? Hypermilers rely on all the old standbys for saving gas, like driving the speed limit and making sure their tires are inflated to the manufactures recommendation. But they also rely heavily on a new technique of accelerating their vehicle to the posted legal speed, then coasting as far as they can without further acceleration. Truly passionate hypermilers, however, go even further, modifying the body of their car to make it more streamlined and thus fuel-efficient. Some use fiberglass and sheet metal for their modifications and strive to make their vehicles look like custom cars. Others care little for good looks, using parts from abandoned cars, discarded highway signs and other odd assortments of scrap metal to alter the outline of their auto. Although the term hypermiling has a distinct American accent, the concept of maximizing fuel efficiency has worldwide appeal. In Europe, where gas prices have long been as much as twice as high as prices in the U.S., the term “ecodriving” is used to describe tactics and techniques that can be used by most drivers for more energy-efficient use of their vehicles. No matter where on the planet they live and what they choose to call themselves, most drivers today will agree that the days of low-cost gas and cars that guzzle it with abandon are over. Dwindling gas supplies, rising prices and the threats of pollution and global warming are all indicators that hypermiling and ecodriving will become permanent parts of not just the world vocabulary, but also the world conscience. |
