Gentle Acceleration
If you drive like your pants are on fire your wallet soon will be.
Accelerating a car is basically a battle against inertia. Your aim as a good hypermiller is to get to your most efficient and safe speed with the least possible fuel usage. As you press down on the accelerator pedal you are basically drawing more air and fuel into the engine and engines, no matter how well mapped, are less efficient with wider throttle openings.
You will find that a “good” cruising speed for your car equates to a particular rpm (most cars have a decent rev counter – if yours does not then try and do this by position of your right foot). When accelerating try not to rev over this point – imagine it like a soft rev limiter.
So press down on the pedal, the revs will rise. When you hit your particular sweet spot on the rev counter back off slightly. Your speed should carry on rising but your revs remain stable, then as you hit your optimum cruise acceleration should stop. Perfect.
If you have a good cruise control system and have just dropped out of your optimum hypermilling speed then hit your resume buttom and the car will sort this out for you.
In general you will now be accelerating “briskly” and efficiently.
If you speed off at maximum acceleration all the time you will be at throttle openings that are potentially less efficient and be loosing a lot of energy in simply heating up your tyres.
Hypermilling.co.uk is simply a small website about hypermilling – hypermilling techniques wll be listed and explained, news about hypermilling listed and links off to useful hypermilling resources.
Remember – being safe is more important than miles per gallon and even a small bump will totally negate any savings made by hypermilling.
You should always make sure your car is totally road legal and your car insurance is up to date, if you have any doubt contact your car insurance company