Ever wondered what the difference between the average driver struggling to beat the EPA in their Prius and the ecodrivers getting 80 mpg is? One of the keys is a technique called “Pulse & Glide.”
The specifics of pulse & glide on the Prius are covered in the above video, but to summarize, the technique has two parts:
The pulse: This is a period of gentle to moderate acceleration. Even though you are using a fair amount of gas to gain speed, you’re not flooring it.
The glide: During the glide you coast down from your top speed to your lower limit with the gasoline engine off, hoping to maximize the distance of your coast.
In the above video, the technique is practiced on rather empty roads from a speed of 20 mph to 37 mph, which nets about 80 mpg over the course in the Prius.
If you’re interested in more fuel saving tips, definitely check out EcoModder’s hypermiling tips list.
For the last couple days, GM has been trying to drum up a little press surrounding the number 230 for a surprise announcement. As you can see above, the “0″ in 230 is a plug, which makes sense considering the announcement was about the fuel economy capabilities of the upcoming Chevy Volt.
Nothing has changed about the Volt in recent history, but the big number comes from changes in the EPA’s plug-in electric vehicle rating system. The new system, which isn’t official yet, credits the Volt for what would be almost entirely electric-only use during normal city driving:
Under the new methodology being developed, EPA weights plug-in electric vehicles as traveling more city miles than highway miles on only electricity. The EPA methodology uses kilowatt hours per 100 miles traveled to define the electrical efficiency of plug-ins. Applying EPA’s methodology, GM expects the Volt to consume as little as 25 kilowatt hours per 100 miles in city driving. At the U.S. average cost of electricity (approximately 11 cents per kWh), a typical Volt driver would pay about $2.75 for electricity to travel 100 miles, or less than 3 cents per mile.
In a nutshell, semantics. The number relies on consumers consistently plugging their vehicle and getting a full charge each time. Also, this says nothing of the highway mileage for the vehicle, though it’s said the Volt will be weighted more for city driving than highway because of its plug-in capability. While this may generate a more impressive number, it doesn’t give much confidence in the vehicle for use in extended driving.
So, until the actual combined number comes from the EPA, we won’t really know what the Volt’s fuel economy is like, and even then, it will likely be very hard for any of us to make an accurate comparison with another vehicle.
It’s certainly a mixed bag of news for many of us, but the government’s “cash for clunks” rebate program has gotten an infusion of new cash and will be up and running through at least the end of the month.
As we recently posted, the program ran out of its first billion after its first week in operation. So, despite all the recent hub-bub around government spending and meddling with the auto industry, they’ve still managed to rush another huge junk of government money out to the aide of an ailing auto industry.
The rush to spend more money on the program, however, didn’t have anything to do with evaluating how successful it has been, either in terms of environmental impact or stimulating sales. However, early evidence suggests that the dealerships and auto manufacturers are going to be the big beneficiaries in all this.
So, if you were planning on buying a new car and through you might be out of luck, fear not, there will be funds available for at least another few weeks.
For those of us eagerly waiting for the official start of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize competition, this is definitely a step in the right direction. The contestants are assembled, the rules are laid out, and finally, the judges have been assembled.
The judging will be done by six automotive experts, assembled from such disparate backgrounds as racing to renewable and battery technology, which should leave the X-Prize Foundation well equipped to deal with the wide range of vehicles and contestants competing for the big, $10 million prize.
Let’s face it, many of us have older cars. And cars, as they get older, develop all sorts of little, painful annoyances. One of those annoyances, which has gotten to me even since I first bought my 1991 CRX, was how the windshield wipers never really seemed to move the water off of the glass. It was like it stuck there, just to annoy me.
I finally discovered Rain-X, and while I don’t often sing the praises of commercial products, this is definitely one of the rare times when I will. Rain-X has done more than any other modification to make my car feel like new, and even allowed me to remove my rear wiper.
So, if you’re interested in just how easy it is to give your car a makeover, check out the video I made on the subject. Just wash, apply, rub in, repeat, and you’re done in no time flat!
