|
One way to hypermile, or increase your gas mileage, is to simply buy a vehicle that gets better gas mileage, like a hybrid - some people choose this option rather than altering their driving habits. Hybrid vehicles combine gasoline-powered engines with a variety of other energy sources, including rechargeable energy storage systems, compressed air, or electric motors. High battery costs make hybrids fairly expensive to buy. But as gas prices continue to rise, it's estimated that hybrid vehicles may become the less expensive choice by late 2008.
Currently, hybrid gas-electric vehicles account for only 3% of new vehicle sales in the United States. The best mileage of a hybrid is achieved by the Toyota Prius, which gets 48 mpg city / 45 mpg highway. Second best is the Honda Civic Hybrid, with 40 city / 45 highway. The Prius hybrid is currently the best-selling hybrid in the US.
Full hybrid vehicles employ both the gasoline engine and electric motor to send power to the wheels. When a full hybrid's gasoline engine is offline, the electric motor can actually drive the car. Ford, Toyota, and Lexus are producing full hybrids. Mild hybrids, on the other hand, use an electric motor to assist gasoline engines only when extra power is required. The gas engine only goes offline when the electric motor can independently sustain the car's needs, like at a red light, but the gasoline engine comes back online for acceleration on a green light.
In general, the longer the trip, the more gas savings a hybrid owner will see. That's because the engine always initially burns gas to power up internal systems.
Hybrids do offer a gas savings, but involve other costs of their own - batteries are expensive (and need to be replaced every 100,000 miles) and add extra weight to the vehicle (offsetting some of its mileage increase). And then there's battery toxicity to take into account: nickel metal hybrid batteries are difficult to dispose of in an environmentally friendly way.
Plug-in hybrids get even better gas mileage, and emit less pollution. But cars don't come out of the factory ready to plug in - they must be retrofitted. People don't retrofit to save money - they do it solely to reduce carbon emissions. For example, a hybrid plug-in retrofit averages around $15,000 - with gas prices at $3 per gallon, it's estimated it would take 95 years to recoup the cost.
Poulsen Hybrid claims to be developing a converter kit for turning internal combustion engines (ICEs) into plug-in gas-electric hybrids. Estimated mileage would be around 100 mpg.
|
|
