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Urban Electric Assist
I'm still a relative newbie to hypermiling, but one observation I've made since installing an UltraGauge is that urban driving kills avg. MPG. I can get about 44 MPG on the highway (EPA 32) in my Nissan Versa, but helplessly watch the avg. drop when driving around town and in traffic. I posted a question asking for driving techniques to minimize the impact (and got lots of great suggestions, thnks to everyone who responded), and I now get around 30 MPG in town; but I want more dang it!
So I wonder if anyone has thought about a hybrid electric conversion, but optimized for urban conditions. It would help with acceleration at low speeds, and possibly include regenerative braking. The idea is to have just enough electric assist to keep MPG up during urban driving conditions without a lot of extra weight that would hurt overall MPG.
I've cursorily looked at both the Poulson Hyrbrid and NetGain's EMIS system, but both are too expensive to be worth it on a Versa. Anyone thought about this before?
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