Have you ever given 1-on-1 ecodriving instruction? (Here's how I did it.)

[MetroMPG]

And the student became the master...

2007 Camry Hybrid:



Of course, I didn't tell them they were doing P&G, but that's what you sort of get when I say "don't be shy with the accelerator" to get up to speed followed by, "and now lift off completely (to get the engine to shut off) and let's coast toward that red light while we wait for it to turn green..."

OK, it's not technically P&G, since there's mild regen when coasting with your foot off the accelerator. But it's easy to learn, and obviously better than the old "accelerate, cruise, then abrupt friction brake-to-a-stop" method.

EDIT: "true" P&G in this car under ideal conditions = 79 MPG ... http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...pg-us-144.html

So far each driver has beaten the EPA city rating on their "baseline" lap. I'm somewhat surprised. Then again, this is a self-selected sample of fuel-conscious drivers.

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Fuel economy ratings …
L/100 km ... MPG U.S. ... MPG Imperial
7.1 ... 33 ... 39.6 ... EPA city
6.9 ... 34 ... 40.8 ... EPA highway
Fuel Economy of the 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid

5.7 ... 41.3 ... 50 ... NRCAN city
5.7 ... 41.3 ... 50 ... NRCAN highway
Vehicle Details | Fuel Consumption Ratings | Office of Energy Efficiency

Ecodriving Results …
L/100 km ... MPG U.S. ... MPG Imperial
6.2 ... 38.2 ... 45.8 ... Lap 1 BASELINE (no coaching)
5.4 ... 43.3 ... 52.0 ... Lap 2 (demonstration - Darin)
5.4 ... 43.9 ... 52.7 ... Lap 3 (coaching)

Ecodriving Savings …
0.7 ... L/100 km ... 12% ... Fuel savings Lap 2 vs. Lap 1
0.8 ... L/100 km ... 13% ... Fuel savings Lap 3 vs. Lap 1

[ik04]

This type of information should be in each State's driver handbook. My daughter's TDI Jetta gets 37.5MPG when she drives it and 55-57MPG when I drive it. I, too have tried to explain momentum and inertia. To her it is just magic and weird driving.

Keep up the good work and maybe we can make driver education a high priority within an especially outside of our community.

I sure do miss my 75MPG Lupo I had in Germany

[Prophecy99]

very cool metrompg ! props

[ps2fixer]

We need more people willing to learn! I have talked to people at work about it, the ones that work within the same group as me don't really seem too interested, one even completely throws the numbers out the window and say to fully load the car with 4 people and fill the car like for a trip before I report numbers to him...

On the other end, the people in the engineering areas almost always love to talk about it, but I'm pretty sure 90% won't attempt anything since they make plenty and don't have a huge concern for mpg (most drive trucks or SUVs!)

[MetroMPG]

That's what makes it nice when they willingly come to you - they're self-selected & motivated to learn. Post a notice on your lunch area bulletin board.

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Case in point: this week's session...



(Yes, those are Civic Hybrid wheels & spoiler on a Canadian market Civic LX. See earlier post about the hybrid wheels on the Honda Fit for an explanation.)

That's the biggest individual improvement so far: MPG up 23% from the driver's baseline lap to the coaching lap!

One fun result about this session was each lap took exactly the same amount of time to go around the 4 mile/6 km circuit. Talk about a teachable moment! Driving efficiently in the city doesn't mean driving slowly! It means driving smarter.

This driver used to drive taxi years ago, so he was easy to coach - good mechanical operation of the car, and pretty aware of what was going on around us. He just wasn't paying attention to the right things (until now). I asked why he didn't drive for fuel economy as a cabbie. "Nobody did! Gas wasn't expensive back then!"

Worst habit: he was revving the wee out of that poor Civic on his baseline lap - driving around in 2nd gear a lot of the time. I asked him why, and his answer sort of made sense: he used to ride motorbikes a lot that needed high RPM to have any power to speak of. Just a bad habit he picked up riding that he transferred to driving. He certainly didn't object to the idea of shifting sooner, so we actually had him cruising along in 5th gear at 50 km/h (30 mph) a couple of times when it was appropriate during the coaching lap.

His results speak for themselves.

Fuel economy ratings ...
L/100 km ... MPG U.S. ... MPG Imperial

9.0 ... 26 ... 31.2 ... EPA city
6.9 ... 34 ... 40.8 ... EPA highway
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/25869.shtml

7.4 ... 31.8 ... 38 ... NRCAN city ... ...
5.4 ... 43.6 ... 52 ... NRCAN highway ... ...
http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/transportatio...s.cfm?id=85399

Ecodriving Results ...
L/100 km ... MPG U.S. ... MPG Imperial
8.7 ... 26.9 ... 32.3 ... Lap 1 BASELINE (no coaching)
6.0 ... 39.0 ... 46.8 ... Lap 2 (demonstration - Darin)
6.7 ... 35.0 ... 42.0 ... Lap 3 (coaching)

Ecodriving Savings (vs. baseline) ...
2.7 ... L/100 km ... 31% ... Savings, baseline vs. demo.
2.0 ... L/100 km ... 23% ... Savings, baseline vs. coaching

[RH77]

What's fun is to get EcoDrivers together to share ideas, practical driving sessions, and the chance to view up-close mods for consideration. I've had the chance to do so maybe 3-4 times and improved each time.

It's tough to improve without instruction (even though 99% of us are likely self-taught). Feedback is nice (SG2, etc) but real-time human intervention is priceless.

Great thread!

RH77

[MetroMPG]

Rick!! Good to hear from you!

I agree, and part of me is thinking that these sessions are a way to sow the seeds for a future local ecodriving/ecomodding group. There's currently nothing of the sort around here -- no hybrid car meets, no local fuel economy rallies, no nothin'. So, that may change.

[MetroMPG]

This was fun. It's been years since I drove a BMW - I forgot what a "driver's car" felt like.

But thirsty! In the hands of a typical driver, I mean: EPA 18 mpg city.

This driver is an EcoModder member though, so not surprisingly already an above average ecodriver. (With vanilla ecodriving, I barely improved over his "baseline" lap of 23.1 mpg (US).)

He's a capable driver, and specifically asked to see some more "advanced" stuff, so we also worked on engine-off coasting (with smooth re-starting using the clutch and matched-rev shifting) plus a little bit of P&G.

Results:

[pRoy]

I can't thank you enough for taking me out today, what a great experience! This really should be mandatory learning for all drivers. I felt I was pretty good at coasting so I would have been upset if I didn't beat the EPA ratings. I also thought I was good at looking ahead at lights, but learned that I had room for improvement. I was really interested in engine off coasting and how it effected MPG. The results blew my mind! Kill switch mod time!

[Daox]

You guys did pretty darn good, nice job.