What are hypermilers?

With gas  hitting record prices and no relief  in site, a new club of people is taking over the roadways. They call themselves the “hypermilers.” They don’t wear club colors—at least, not yet. One can only regconize them by their obsessive attention maximize  their car’s gas mileages.

The term “hypermiler” was originally coined by the early hybrid-vehicle driving clubs whose members  actively competed to see who could succeed in going beyond  the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s ( EPA) estimated fuel efficiency.

By utilizing real-time mileage displays, hypermilers were able to pinpoint the exact driving techniques that deliver the best EPA ratings. Once pinpointed, these techniques can be tweaked and further developed.

The trend began within a competitive atmosphere of drivers who put their hypermiling genius to the test in hypermileage marathons. However as gas prices in the United States began an never before seen climb in 2007, hypermiling began to draw  media attention.

Nowadays, the standard hypermiler is far less likely to be a hybrid-driving oponent and most likely to be normal employed man or woman trying to squeeze some more miles out of a gas budget that has begun taking a bigger and bigger bite out of your typical domestic finances.

Not surprisingly owners of luxury SUV’s, the vehicle of choice for the richer households in America, are showing a growing interest in hypermiling, hoping that a few tricks performed behind the steering wheel will lead to less sticker shock in front of the gas pump.

Passionate hypermilers assert they can get an increase in mileage of better than 40%. Lots of them claim they’ve taken vehicles with an average miles-per-gallon rating of 27mpg and easily increased it  to 40 mpg.

How is this done? Hypermilers rely on all the proven stand-bys for saving fuel, like staying within the speed limit and making sure their tires are inflated according to the recommendation of the manufacturers.

But they also employ a new technique of speeding up their vehicle to the posted legal speed, then free coasting as far as possible the need for further acceleration.

Truly avid hypermilers, however, go even further, by making modifications to the body of their car to make it less wind-resistant and thus fuel-efficient.

Some use fiberglass and sheet metal for their modifications and make every effort to make their cars look like standard cars. Others care little for esthetics, using parts from scrapped cars, redundant highway signs and other odd assortments of scrap metal to alter the outline of their auto.

Although the term hypermiling has been distincly associated with America, the concept of making the most of fuel efficiency has worldwide appeal. In Europe, where gas prices have long been much higher than prices in the United States., the term “ecodriving” is used to describe tactics and techniques that can be utilized by most drivers for more energy-efficient use of their cars.

No matter where on the planet they reside and what they prefer to call themselves, most people today will agree that the good old days of low-cost gas and cars that guzzle it with abandon are long over. Dwindling gas supplies, price hikes and the threats of pollution and global warming are all indicators that hypermiling and ecodriving will become permanent parts of not only the world vocabulary, but the  world consciousness as well.