My success with Hyundai Santro/Atos

[appuchan]

I am trying out some of the hypermiling techniques since March. It did help me quite a lot in saving fuel and also added an interesting angle to the the overall driving experience in the city. I have been trying the following techniques so far.

Car: 2001 Hyundai Santro/Atos (Petrol)

Route: Usually 24 kms up and down in busy city roads.

Started: From March 08 with P&G technique along with no A/c usage and rolled up windows. Also tried techniques such as FAS (in neutral) and over-inflating tires later, though they did not prove much useful yet.

Fuel: Filled always from the same gas station

1. Pulse and Glide (P&G) technique: Comparatively easier in Bangalore city as there is hardly 100 metres between any two consecutive signals in most of the roads. I did this for the whole of March and my average mileage increased to about 15.3 kmpl. A good improvement over 13 kmpl earlier.

2. Forced Auto Stop (FAS): I tried this without switching off the engine and there was some improvement in mileage. (~.75 kmpl). I continue doing the same with coasting to stop in neutral with engine running.

3. Inflating tyes to 36 psi: This seems to have a very marginal impact on city driving as its mostly low speed/distance.

Other techniques such as "tailgating large vehicles" etc are not practical in our city roads. Even being proactive while driving is not of much use since "anything can happen anytime" in Indian roads! Maybe learning some "instant astrology" could help

I am still perfecting the art of P&G and "pro-active" driving with minimum use of brake and gas pedals. So far I am able to increase my mileage to about 17 kmpl.

Request any Atos owners to share their techniques. Big thanks to this forum for letting me learn the eco-driving techniques.

PS. Sorry for using kmpl instead of mpg for measuring FE. I am yet to learn the "in-memory" conversion trick. (multiply kmpl by 2.352145 to get mpg)

[MetroMPG]

13 to 17 kmpl is a whopping 30% improvement. That qualifies as a success story!

I have read that in Calcutta/Kolkata, pulse and glide is the norm for urban taxi drivers trying to save fuel. I'm doubtful, but it's an interesting story anyway:

Burn-and-coast might seem a little impractical, but Dr. Frank and his students are adamant supporters. "In Calcutta, all the taxis drive this way. It's economical, but total chaos," Dr. Frank laughs. "Now lets try it with your cars."

Source - Q: How do you get 116 mpg (US) in a Metro XFi? A: Pulse and glide. - MetroMPG.com

[appuchan]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

13 to 17 kmpl is a whopping 30% improvement. That qualifies as a success story!

I have read that in Calcutta/Kolkata, pulse and glide is the norm for urban taxi drivers trying to save fuel. I'm doubtful, but it's an interesting story anyway:


Source - Q: How do you get 116 mpg (US) in a Metro XFi? A: Pulse and glide. - MetroMPG.com

I too have seen that in Kolkatta. But I would rather call it "Push and Glide", since they rarely turn on the engine! Traffic is horribly out of control in that city and its humanly impossible to drive for non-residents. Better to be pushed around by somebody who is an expert.

[chuckm]

AWESOME work so far!

In stop and go driving as you are doing, over-inflating the tires will have less of an impact. It will help, but not nearly as much as the other city driving techniques (like FAS and pulse and glide).
Tailgating bigger vehicles is about helping your aerodynamic drag, which is more of a highway driving thing. Under 60kph, aerodynamics isn't as big an issue.