Hypermiling: 12 Ways to Drive for Better MPG

Hypermiling is simply driving to use as little fuel as possible. Done sensibly, it's not about crawling and annoying everyone behind you — it's about removing the waste most drivers don't notice. Applied consistently, these techniques can cut fuel use by 15–30%. Here are twelve that are safe and legal.

Read the road ahead

1. Anticipate, don't react. The biggest waste is accelerating hard toward a red light you can see, then braking. Every time you brake, you throw away fuel you already spent. Look far ahead and ease off early.
2. Time the lights. Aim to arrive at a light as it turns green rather than sitting at it. Rolling through at 15 mph uses far less fuel than stopping and re-accelerating from zero.
3. Coast to a stop. Lift off the accelerator early and let the car slow itself. Modern fuel injection cuts fuel entirely when you coast in gear, so a long coast to a red light can use no fuel at all.

Manage your speed

1. Slow down on the highway. Aerodynamic drag rises with the square of speed. Dropping from 75 to 65 mph can save 10–15% — the single biggest highway win.
2. Use cruise control on flat roads. It holds a steady speed and stops the unconscious surging that wastes fuel. On hilly roads, though, drive it yourself — let speed bleed off uphill and build downhill.
3. Accelerate smoothly but purposefully. Feather-light acceleration keeps you in traffic's way; flooring it wastes fuel. Moderate, steady acceleration to your target speed is the sweet spot.

Cut the losses

1. Kill the drag. Remove roof racks and cargo boxes when not in use; they can slash highway economy. Keep windows up at speed.
2. Lose dead weight. Clear the boot of what you don't need. Weight hurts most in stop-start and hilly driving.
3. Inflate your tyres. Correct pressure cuts rolling resistance and can improve economy by around 3%. Check monthly.
4. Don't idle. Idling gets you zero miles per gallon. If you'll be stopped more than a minute (and it's safe), switch off.

Plan and maintain

1. Combine trips and go when it's quiet. A warm engine sips; a cold one gulps. One chained trip beats several cold starts, and off-peak driving means less stop-start waste.
2. Keep the car healthy. The right oil grade, a clean air filter and properly aligned wheels all protect your economy. Neglect quietly costs you miles per gallon.

A word on safety

Some extreme "hypermiling" tricks — drafting close behind trucks, coasting with the engine off, over-inflating tyres — are dangerous or illegal. Skip them. Everything on the list above is safe, legal, and simply good driving. The irony is that hypermiling done right also makes you a smoother, more anticipatory, safer driver.

How much can it save?

Realistically, adopting these habits can improve your everyday economy by 15–30% depending on how aggressively you drove before. On a car that costs $2,000 a year in fuel, that's $300–$600 back in your pocket for changing nothing but technique. See where that fits among 17 ways to save money on gas, and check your own car's economy in the fuel cost tool.