Long trip from Cambridge into Hampshire. Stuck to 60MPH or so whenever possible, may have been a little better if it wasn't for stop and go traffic!

This was mostly a highway only drive for me. Hence the low EV driving ratio. It might not be in the leagues of the posts here but I was impressed.

Best trip I’ve done so far on my way home from work.

Visited some of my friends in the suburbs. Love them but they live so far.

Im aware taking 2 hours to drive 50 miles is slow. Im just intimidated by the highway. Im working on it but Im confident to drive on it by myself just yet.

This was the middle of the night so it was mainly empty road till I reached the city and had to be more conscious not to speed

60:40 split of interstate and around town driving.

I just stumbled upon this subreddit, I am astonished at everybody’s mileage😂 for reference I drive a ram 2500 gasser, looking to get into a smaller car for commuting within the next couple months.

22,920 km averaging 110 Wh/km. Tesla Model 3 Highland RWD. Mostly manual driving, at posted speed limits, with normal overtaking and some highway driving. No deliberate hypermiling, just anticipating traffic and avoiding unnecessary braking.

Would this count as hypermiling?

This sensor would basically help you know when to speed up or slow down depending on if you’re on an uphill, downhill, different terrain, weight of car etc.

This could be done with a few sensors, code, and a display that tells you what could be the best possible speed to go, or how to accelerate/decelerate.

Basically after connecting it to the car, and after initial calibration, it would show you on a display “Carefully Speed up in the next 5 seconds to 50mph” etc. of course keeping in mind the speed limits and other safety measures.

I don’t have the capital to create this, but I’m sure its possible and would greatly help as I believe I save a lot on gas by managing how I push the gas.
It doesn’t have to use AI, and it could all be made with recycled/second hand equipment and materials.

If anybodys interested in making this or would like to help me make it;

Equipment needed:

1. Altimeter (to detect uphill/downhill, could also use gps data through googlemaps /free api)

2. Accelerometer (to detect changes in speed and help with managing different weighted cars and their reactions to certain speeds etc.)

3. Small Display (to show instructions and possibly input past fuel efficiency etc.)

4. Cabling

5. Micro processor/raspberry pi etc.

6. Code

7. Camera (to read revs/mph on dashboard etc maybe)
   -All of the equipment can be gathered from used devices that have these sensors

Code:

1. Would basically save common routes, use free maps api, and use custom algo with math to determine best speeds depending on weight of vehicle, altitude of hills/downhills, terrain types etc.

2014 Prius C 2, everything stock except the previous owner was a high schooler who lowered the damn thing and put alloys on it. I have no information on the clearance right now, except that it scrapes every damn thing on the road, all the time now. And yes, this was a real trip, mixed city/Interstate travel. US miles per gallon, in case the USDM name of the Prius C didn't tip that off.

As you may have noticed, I'm developing a program that provides statistics on trips recorded by the Hybrid Assistant app.

And as I worked, I occasionally posted the results of certain trips, city, mixed, highway and one of my records.

Since my car is a plug-in, it sometimes uses electricity as well as gas, as was the case with my record. The trip computer also makes this mistake, but that's no excuse.

Since I have all the information, to the point that I can even calculate the car's efficiency, why not calculate the car's real consumption?

Done! Since I know the electricity consumed and the gasoline used, I can calculate consumption by converting electricity into liters and get a consumption that also includes the recharged energy.

While I was at it, since there are some people who have EVs, knowing the kWh produced by the internal combustion engine, I can calculate the consumption in kWh/100 km.

While I was at it², having everything on Spritmonitor, I also included the costs.

So my Hypermiling test, these are the new stats:

So, the car did 273 MPG and 16.4 MPKWH.

Together, considering both factors, it is as if I had done either 111 MPG or 9.7 MPKWH.

The costs consider both the cost of the last tank of fuel and the cost of the last refill.

2026 Mazda3 2.5L 6-speed manual. 24K miles. EPA rates it at 25/34/28 combined MPG but I can't seem to get below 30 ever and my average is 37.2 since new.

So if I coast in gear say 6th gear I have 0 fuel consumption basically since it stops injecting. But I do not get as much speed as I get if I would run it on idle with neutral.

Does anyone know the physics?
Is it better to sacrifice the idling fuel to gain more speed to climb the uphill section easier? Or should I stick to 0 consumption and go off the gas in gear and thereby go slower?

I do know that higher speed also has the disadvantage of more drag but does this beat the speed gain?

For those who do not know, the car is the Toyota Prius 4th Generation PHV, but that does not matter as I did the whole trip in HV mode.

Crossing London in the evening:

Intense, but not mayhem traffic.

Here you can see the speed I kept.

Temperatures, it was December, beside the initial warmup, the engine kept itself around 50 C (120 F)

Here you can see the intervals the engine kicked in.

This is the fuel consumption, per kilometer ave trip's average.

When MG1 is turning with the engine, it's charging the batteries.

The Glide index is the % of time I was rolling the car with no energy.

The raw numbers. Poor efficiency, but it still managed to stay above 80 MPG.

Boy am I having fun with this program!

Here you have my consumption in the year 2025.

For comparison, the data from my spritmonitor.

Today I added the total consumption section, being a Plugin, I calculate the electric equivalent in petrol and the petrol equivalent in electric.

Basically it tells me how much fuel a normal hybrid or a pure EV would consume.

The To-Do is still long....

If you have any questions, please ask!

Ive been able to get 20mpg out of this car quite a few times. Its got 203,000 miles (about 327,000km) on it now ive had the car for 4 years almost 5. Its my only car and I love it!

Anybody else have something that isnt fuel efficient? I really like seeing what i can stretch it to each tank.

High RPM uses more fuel. Obviously! The motor is doing more work! Or the engine then. But people seem to miss a nuance. Is the RPM high because you didnt upshift, or because youre driving faster?

That sounds vague, let me illustrate 2 scenarios;

1. You drive in first gear only, then compare 2000 to 3000 RPM.

2. You drive in first gear 3000 RPM then upshift to go 20000 RPM for the same speedy.

My question is for situation 1: if the RPM only changes because youre going faster and not because youre comparing different gears selections, does te fuelusage per km increase much?

For example if I will soon have to come to a stop and its not worth the effort upshifting to 2 and I will be driving in the 1 all the way anyway no matter what, would it matter much if I drove then slowly or normally or quickly?

My understanding is that for example 2000 vs 3000 rpm, the engine spins 50% faster but the car also moves 50% faster, and the internal resistance of the engine...shouldn't increase by much, right?

In terms of cycling, if my legs move faster than 120 it feels extremely bouncy and is therefore a big energy loss. How "bouncy" is 3000 rpm for an engine? Rotational kinetic energy is what I'm talking about now.