Wrench smart – driver smarter – save fuel

When the Scion debuted its iQ Concept at the New York International Auto Show, there was no solid word on when or if the car would be coming to the United States. The early word is that the car, which has already been successful in Japan and Europe, would come to North America in 2011 as a 2012 under the Scion brand, which would certainly give Scion some time to create larger customization options for the car to better fit their brand image.

Now the news is that the iQ could be coming to the U.S. even sooner. Given the recent success and expansion of SmartUSA, Toyota might have its sights set on the fortwo’s market niche with the iQ. Given Toyota’s superb brand-recognition and dealership network, it could easily give Smart a run for its money and reach even more potential buyers. Here’s hoping!

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If you haven’t noticed by now, truckers drive their rigs in a fundamentally different way from your average commuter. The main reason for this is the size and weight of their loads, which make it driving a truck more difficult, but a secondary benefit of driving like a trucker is better fuel economy.

How do you drive like a trucker?

There are three specific driving techniques that truckers use that I would like to highlight in this article:

1. Driving with load: Because truckers are often carrying heavy loads, they simply can’t make it up hills at the same speed as smaller vehicles. This is why you’ll often see truckers crawling up hilly interstate passes in the right lane. Then to make up time they pick that speed (and a little more) back up on the downhill.
2. Traffic light timing: Starting a truck from a dead stop is a difficult task, so when trucks are in stop and go traffic you’ll notice them crawling painfully slowly up to a stop. This helps them let traffic clear out in front of them so they can avoid actually stopping completely and begin accelerating again in a higher gear.
3. Follow the path of least resistance: As I’ve already emphasized, acceleration both positive and negative can be difficult with a truck. So, on the highways trucks tend to stick together in the right lane where they can cruise at a steady pace without much swerving around and jostling for position like many drivers are often do during their daily commutes.

How can you emulate these practices for better gas mileage?

With three techniques of your own, you can take a hint from our friends in the big rigs and get much better mileage:

1. Driving with load (DWL): Since you don’t drive a truck, you probably can get your car up a hill at or above the speed limit, but this doesn’t mean that you should. Typically in DWL you will allow your car to bleed speed uphill and then regain it downhill, within +/- 5 mph of your target average speed. Make sure that your bleeding and acceleration are smooth however, as it is advantageous to back off the throttle only a little going up hill so that you’re not quickly decelerating.

You can DWL with even bigger changes of speed, but this is not recommended in traffic or on single-lane roads since it can be quite a pain for other drivers. I personally limit DWL to deserted back roads and multi-lane interstates.

2. Traffic light timing: Traffic light timing can be difficult depending on the circumstances, but with a little time and attention it is one of the most useful driving techniques around. Next time you are on your commute or a commonly traveled road, try to pay attention to the lights. Do some of them have cross walk signs? How long do they stay red for? Are they timed or camera-triggered?

With this information you can learn how to time lights so that you never actually stop. You can anticipate red lights in a number of ways using available information. If a crosswalk signing is turning to stop or cross-traffic is lined up waiting, it is a good bet that the light may be turning red and you can begin a coast to the light.

Likewise, if a light has been red for quite a while and there is already traffic piling up at the light, you can slow down early and approach the light slowly, waiting for the light to change rather than arriving sooner and slamming on the brakes, which will avoid stopping altogether.

3. The path of least resistance: This tip is pretty much the same as how truckers do it. Stick to the right lanes unless you’re in a busy road like DC’s beltway, where ramps every several hundred meters mean constant slowing and speeding up to let other drivers on and off the road.

So there you have it! Now you can drive like a trucker and save some gas while you’re at it. I have never quantified the affects of these techniques in normal driving, but I can assure you they add up to much more than just a few percent MPG gain in my normal commute. Happy ecodriving!

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The Fit and Yaris have been dueling hatchbacks for years now, but it looks like they might soon become dueling hybrids. Rumors of both popular cars becoming hybrids have come and gone over the last few years, but it looks like it will stick this time for both of them. Especially now that sedans like the Civic and Corolla are much less popular at home in Japan than their hatchback counterparts.

Yaris rumors report that the vehicle could cost less than $16,000 in hybrid form and get up to 94 mpg in Japan’s urban driving cycle. As impressive as that sounds, it would probably only mean ~50mpg in the EPA test cycle. Nevertheless, you can anticipate the sales of vehicle carrying the Prius’s epic clout and a low price tag.

The Fit hybrid has been talked about for a lot longer, but it looks like that vehicle might come true as early as 2010. Less is known about the theoretical fuel economy of a Fit hybrid, but one would expect similar numbers to a Yaris hybrid unless Honda continues with it’s mild-hybrid IMA system into a new generation of hybrid vehicles.

Here’s hoping the rumor mill is more productive this time around!

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Got Pruis solar roof envy? Evidently quite a lot of people do these days. But that doesn’t mean that you, too, cannot have your very own solar roof. However, the ecomodders taking the initiative to add solar to their cars are not doing it for comfort in the summer, but for fuel economy.

How does a solar roof increase fuel economy?

Well, for the average ecomodder, removing gasoline-hungry alternator is a big dream. However, the usual method of doing this is to add a deep discharge battery and plug it in at home, a big hassle that still leaves your car with a somewhat limited range.

Solar alleviates this problem by allowing you to trickle charge your battery for extended alternator-less trips and less need to plug in to recharge.

So, how are they doing it?

The DIY solar roof solution is simpler than you might think. Just build your own custom solar array…on your roof! If that sounds too complicated, check out ecomodder member gascort’s step by step process, and you’ll see that with a little elbow grease and a lot of courage, you too can have a solar roof.

Definitely one of the cooler ways to turn your vehicle into a gasoline-sun hybrid!

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