Acton Toyota | Hypermiling Rally
Posted by Justin Brun on Tue, May 24, 2011 @ 02:58 PM
At 9am on Sunday, May 15th at Kimball Farm in Westford, MA, nearly 30 brave individuals embarked on a 24.3 mile vehicle rally sponsored by Acton Toyota of Littleton. However, this was not a race to see who could complete the course the fastest. Instead, it was a competition to determine who could navigate the route while attaining the best possible fuel efficiency.
The results were remarkable including a 99.9 mpg performance with a 2009 Toyota Prius and an astonishing fuel consumption feat by the Toyota Prius Plug-in.
The rally was part of a larger Acton Toyota event where Wayne Gerdes, founder of cleanMPG.com, spoke to an audience of approximately 200 people on how to drive their Toyota hybrid vehicles more fuel efficiently. This practice, coined by Wayne as “hypermiling”, utilizes various practices and techniques to achieve low fuel consumption that outperforms a vehicle’s EPA fuel economy rating.
To prove the effectiveness of Wayne’s hypermiling techniques, in 2008, CBS challenged Wayne to drive a Toyota Prius from Chicago to NYC, a distance of 805 miles, on a single tank of gas. Wayne succeeded and still had over a gallon of gasoline remaining in the tank.
For the rally, Acton Toyota challenged Wayne to test the limits of the Toyota Prius Plug-in on its course. Believe it or not, Wayne used only .04 gallons, or 5.12 fluid oz., of gasoline to successfully complete the 24.3 mile drive! When calculating the cost of electricity and gasoline Wayne used to power the car the total is less than $.40 combined. Yes, that is an inconceivable 40 cents.
Toyota has stated the range on the Prius Plug-in’s electric battery when fully charged is approximately 13 miles. However, Wayne’s demonstration is proof positive that with proper hypermiling driving techniques that distance is nearly double.
The top Prius rally performance boasted a 99.9 mpg rating. This mpg rating means the Prius driver consumed less than 1 quart of fuel to drive the 24.3 mile course. Second place logged a very impressive 97.3 mpg figure. In total, 7 Prius drivers achieved an 80 mpg rating or better. The lowest Prius performance was still a very desirable 60.9 mpg.
“The rally and event were a huge success,” remarks Mike Hills, General Manager of Acton Toyota of Littleton. Mike adds, “We set out not only to showcase the fuel efficiency of the Toyota Prius with the rally, but also to assist our current hybrid owners learn how to get improved gas mileage with their cars. Wayne did an excellent job of informing our owners on how to spend less time and money at the gas pump.”