Slashdot Mirror
Japanese Mileage Maniacs
WY writes "Bloomberg reports on the quirky world of Japanese hybrid car hackers: 'Toyota Motor Corp. says its Prius gasoline-electric hybrid car gets about 55 miles to the gallon, making it one of the most fuel-efficient cars on the road. That's not good enough for Takashi Toya.' He managed to reach as high as 115 MPG. He is one of about 100 nenpimania, Japanese for mileage maniacs."
Well, on the way up, the fuel efficiency drops. But you build up potential energy, so you hardly use any energy when the car goes down. Any braking power is passed to the batteries. Driving with my dad's petrol car in mountainous regions in France and Italy, I was always surprised that I managed to get a mileage better than regular (probably helped by the fact that the average speed was lower). The first rule of fuel efficiency is: BREAKING IS FOR LOSERS. If you have to brake, you're not good at anticipating very well. Cross-road or round-about coming up: lift you foot from the peddle. Second rule: KEEP ROLLING. You must make sure you keep on roling. If a traffic light is coming up, I may brake well before the traffic light, then roll along. In all likelihood, the light is green when I reach it, and I may have left a speed of 15 miles per hour. If I had stopped, I would have been slower too, because I'd have to start from zero. It is one of those things people fail to understand (just like: the fastest way to overtake another car is to keep a distance from him (much safer too), instead of tailgating. You can see the opportunity for taking over earlier, you can start making speed, if it doesn't work you break, if it does work you're having a first speed difference in comparison to a tail gater). Lastly, I may drive behind a truck (we have laws here that forbid them to pollute too much so it is OK). Saves up to 10% (more if I were closer, but as long as we don't have a connection between braking and distance control, that is out).
Bert