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Hypermiling could also be called momentum conservation because that's the core of what you're doing.
It starts with mechanical techniques.
Make sure you're at full or even upper pressure on your tires.
Consider using a lower weight approved motor oil to reduce drag on the engine.
Park in the shade, and maintain the gasket on your fuel cap to reduce fuel evaporation.
Use a narrower, but approved sized tire instead of the widest approved one.
No ideal roof racks, cargo holders, bike racks, or kayaks that ruin aerodynamics.
Some folks even gas up often, and only as much as needed.
To reduce weight.
And it probably won't hurt to go on a diet and reduce your own weight.
Then there are the driving techniques.
Here's where you get to the core of it.
Modulating your momentum.
Another way to put it is to use the break and the accelerator pedals as little as possible.
Look down the field as you're driving and don't go so fast that you know you're gonna have to needlessly break up there.
That turns precious gas into break dust and heat.
Even cars with regenerative braking throw away energy when you slow down with the brakes.
And how do you replace that energy?
By burning more gas.
So seek the least and gentle acceleration and braking in traffic.
Hit the sweet spot.
That means keeping the car very generally between about 35 and maybe 60 miles per hour.
Going much faster drags down mpg, due to wind resistance.
Going a lot slower isn't good because combustion engines are inefficient at low speed ranges.
Use tall gears.
This will dampen responsiveness, but that's not the point here.
Your modern automatic will already seek the tallest usable gear when you're in normal or Eco mode.
But stay out of sport and stay off those paddles.
Now, if you've read about.
Hyper milers, or people who gain the most out of their hybrid.
You probably read about a technique called Pulse & Glide.
This is getting on the throttle kind of hard to get up to speed with the engine running in its sweet spot, then coasting until you're down to a speed where you've gotta pick it up again and repeat the cycle.
It requires fairly open traffic conditions, of course.
And is maximized by having the car in neutral or even turning off the engine during the glide part because coasting in gear introduces quite a bit of engine drag.
It reduces the game.
However, coasting in neutral or turning off your engine on the road are illegal, inadvisable or both.
Another technique I do not recommend on regular public roads is drafting.
This is coming in tight behind a large or, at least, larger vehicle to reduce your wind resistance.
But to do it, you really have to violate the three second gap rule on public roads.
Just not cool.
Especially behind a vehicle that isn't in on the game.
As you can see hypermiling has a lot of little pieces to it.
You've got to make some things second nature that aren't right now, and you've got to get some new muscle memory if you will.
But the nice thing about it is you can use it on demand with the current car you already.
They have.
Why not try it?
See how much you can wring out of your current vehicle.
You might not need to buy that hybrid after all.
And when you do wanna crack it open on a fun country road.
You can still do that as well.
It's not like you had to make a hard mechanical commitment to a different kind of machine.
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