audio only,What Drives Us episode

#342: Clean Coal Powered Station Wagons

30 Nov , 2019   Video

russell (and everyone)
Ford Mustang Mach-E debut https://www.forbes.com/sites/samabuelsamid/2019/11/17/2021-ford-mustang-mach-ethe-pony-goes-electric/

mark
VW May Toughen Up Production ID. Space Vizzion With Alltrack-Like Looks

Tony:
Did they really think they could take sides and not encounter fallout? https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-emissions-california/california-to-stop-buying-gm-toyota-and-fiat-chrysler-vehicles-over-emissions-fight-idUSKBN1XS2B2

russell
you guys are killing me
https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/13/jetpack-aviation-raises-2m-to-build-the-prototype-of-its-flying-motorcycle/ russell Lyft scaling back dubious scooter ops in six cities https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/14/lyft-is-ceasing-scooter-operations-in-six-cities-and-laying-off-20-employees/

russell
Just plain get out of here https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/12/20961812/elon-musk-berlin-tesla-ceo-fourth-gigafactory-construction

Tony
Even if all these things are true, my guess is that people will hate them. http://theconversation.com/smart-tech-systems-cut-congestion-for-a-fraction-of-what-new-roads-cost-125718

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audio only,What Drives Us episode

#329 – Safer Cars Make Less Safe Drivers

28 Jul , 2019   Video

1) Dockless scooters are being ticketed, towed, and impounded.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/24/20696405/dockless-scooters-share-repo-men-repossessor-lawsuit-tow-yard-lime-bird-lyft-uber-razor

2) Uber’s CEO predicted self-driving cars and flying cars by now. Why’s my flaying car?
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/uber-ceo-expects-self-driving-cars-start-picking-passengers-18-months-flying-cars-5-7-years/

3) Carlos Ghosn is suing Nissan-Mitsubishi because they fired him wrong
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-renault-nissan-ghosn-idUSKCN1UF063

4) Safety Technology makes people less safe
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369847818302559

5) 50 Solar charging stations have been installed in New York City
https://solarchargeddriving.com/2019/07/16/solar-ev-charging-stations-go-up-in-new-york-city

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Article,EPA,Hypermiling

Planning Trips

5 Sep , 2016  

I’m in the process of recording these articles in a series of videos.  Click the image to the left to watch them.  While there, be sure to subscribe to the channel.


-Tony Schaefer

In another post, we discussed how to best handle your day-to-day commute by finding a mileage-friendly route, memorizing it, and documenting how well you do. This article will address how to handle those unexpected and irregular trips. For example, running errands on the weekends.

Combine Trips

This should be obvious but I’m just throwing it out there.

Quite possibly, the silliest thing you could do is to make a bunch of little errand runs throughout the day. As long as you’re out running errands, hit all your stops in one go. Seriously, there’s not much more to write about this except to make note that the order in which you combine all your trips is important. So with that…

Go to the Farthest Destination First

It seems like the easiest and best thing: go to the closest destination and progress out until you’re at the farthest destination and then head home. However, in terms of mileage, this is the worst possible way to approach the situation. Here is the underlying reason: cars get better mileage once they are warmed up. If you string together a bunch of short drives, the engine will never have an adequate chance to properly warm up. It will always be running in an inefficient warm-up mode.

By starting with the farthest destination, the engine will have that initial chance to get completely up to temperature and start running efficiently. Then, when you head to the second stop, the engine is starting from a warm condition and is more likely to return to optimal temperature before stopping again. The same goes for all subsequent stops. The point here is that you want to give your car at least one long drive to reach optimal temperature.

As with all things, there are exceptions. The above advice works great for non-perishable errands (crafts store, hardware store, library, etc.) However, if the farthest destination is the grocery store with frozen food, you might want to plan the route so you get there last before heading home. If the farthest destination is a restaurant of the theater, you’re going to want to end there.

Consider Taking a Roundabout Route

If you are out running errands, then you’re probably pretty familiar with the area within about 5 miles of your house. With this in mind, you should have a pretty good understanding of traffic fluctuations in relation to a place, time, and day of the week.

When provided the opportunity, take a more roundabout route if it means dodging traffic situations and stoplights. Keeping clear of traffic situations could mean better constant-speed driving as will dodging the stoplights and stop signs.

Did you know that UPS drivers are routed in such a way as to minimize their number of left turns?

UPS engineers found that left-hand turns were a major drag on efficiency. Turning against traffic resulted in long waits in left-hand turn lanes that wasted time and fuel, and it also led to a disproportionate number of accidents. From 2004 to 2012, the right turn rule combined with other improvements saved around 10 million gallons of gas and reduced emissions by the equivalent of taking 5,300 cars of the road for a year.

Think about that. Not only does turning right mean that you spend less time waiting for traffic to clear, it means that you do not cross lanes of traffic as much. Turning right is much safer than turning left.

One consideration that might be a bit of a stretch is that the less-than-direct route might have better roads. In other words, find a path that avoids crappy roads. No doubt you have noticed that your car rolls better and gets better overall mileage on freshly paved, smooth roads. If provided the opportunity, define your route based on traveling on the smoothest roads. Besides, driving on rough roads just plain stinks.

All these things, when put together, might provide a more fuel-efficient route than heading directly to the destinations without any forethought.

Run your Errands when it’s Warm Outside

This concept works in combination with driving to the farthest destination first. Driving when it’s warmer outside will help your engine warm because the air rushing past the engine will be warmer. In some geologies, the morning-to-afternoon temperature swing can be several degrees. You need a sweater in the morning but have stripped down to a T-shirt by mid-afternoon.

If you like to get up and out as early as possible, that’s fine; just as long as you know that you might be taking a hit to your mileage. If you can wait a few hours, when the outside temperature is higher, you will be rewarded with better mileage. In the meantime, find other things you can do perhaps around the house or whatever.

Give Yourself Plenty of Time

This is a tried-and-true mainstay of hypermiling. When we feel rushed, we tend to make bad decisions, press a little harder on the pedal, and generally compromise the hard work we’ve done so far.

So here’s what you do: as long as you’re waiting for the temperature to go up, plan your trip so that you hit the farthest destination first. Once you’re done with that, figure out how long your entire trip will take and leave on time. So you see, a bunch of these concepts fit hand-in-hand.

Conclusion

Sometimes we have to make that one-off trip to the grocery store or hardware store or whatever. But when a series of errands require that you top at multiple destinations, taking a little time to plan it all out could reward you with improved overall mileage.

Table of Contents

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Article,Review

2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

4 Jun , 2016  

Thanks for visiting us.  We have started posting video reviews on our Youtube channel.  We post new ones regularly.  Click the image to the left to check them out. 


– Tony Schaefer

Ten years ago, I never thought I could use the phrase “sexy Hyundai” with a straight face. But every time I approached the 2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, I admired the styling, curves, and sporty cues provided by this sexy Hyundai. Does the beautiful design provide icing on the cake for a well-executed hybrid system or do the tactile sensations mask underlying problems? I drove the Sonata Hybrid for a week to find out.

2013-Hyundai-Sonata-Hybrid-Exterior-2

Overview

Whether they want to admit it or not, Hyundai has an uphill battle with the American car buying public. When friends and coworkers saw I had the Sonata Hybrid, many told stories of their Hyundai-owning experiences with failing parts, expensive repairs, and a general feeling of untrusting. They each conceded, however, that their stories are fifteen or twenty years old.

The 2012 Sonata Hybrid was available in a single package with multiple upgrade options. 2013 brings two trim levels: Base and Limited. Many of the upgrades from 2012 were simply incorporated into the 2013 Limited though some previous upgrades were made standard. The end result is two trim levels that provide enough options to help perspective Sonata Hybrid owners know which is right for them.

Exterior

Hyundai hasn’t changed much with the exterior of the Sonata from last year. From the side, the roofline is long and sleek extending from the hood to the trunk in a single, uninterrupted line. Rising up from the front tire along the side is the very distinguishable flair that joins the door handles and concludes just above the brake light assembly. Chrome trimming along the bottom of the doors offset the chrome detailing from the headlights to the rear. To aid with aerodynamics, the Sonata incorporates sharper rear corners. All these simple lines accentuate the length and draw the eye from front to back.

Like so many other manufacturers these days, Hyundai has adopted the wide-mouth, gaping grill. I know it’s just me but I’m simply not a fan of the look. Additionally, as a hypermiler, my first thought was how I could block that grill to keep the engine warm in the winter. Kudos, however, on the headlight assembly and fog lights. The projection headlamps are lined and wrapped in an LED accent creating a creative display when viewed from both front and side. By comparison, the fog lights are simplistic but their housing is chrome-lined and extended which create a larger look and feel. The combination of the headlights and fog lights cut a respectable presence in any rearview mirror.

2013-Hyundai-sonata-panaramic-sunroofOne of my favorite parts of the Limited package is the optional panoramic sunroof / moonroof. When closed and viewed from the outside, you can’t even tell the bulk of the roof is glass. When opened, the entire cabin is flooded with natural light and the entire roof is transformed. You can control the blinds for those particularly sunny days.

Using the keyless fob, you can unlock the driver’s door by pressing the button on the handle. The same button locks the doors so I guess you could think of it like a locking toggle. It was easy to unlock the doors this way without the need to get the fob out of my pocket. Of course, the same keyless fob allows you to start the car without inserting anything into the dash or steering column. So many manufacturers are moving towards the keyless fob approach, when I drive a car with a physical key, it just feels so last century.

Interior

The Limited package I drove was fully appointed in black leather. What’s not leather is molded plastic. In some places, the plastic seemed, well, plastic. In other applications, though, it didn’t catch my attention which, when you think about it, is a good thing.

2013-Sonata-Cockpit

Sitting and driving the Sonata Hybrid was extremely comfortable. The seats envelope the occupants with a firm, sporty feel.  It doesn’t hurt when the driver’s seat is electronically controlled in every conceivable direction including lumbar support. My wife was concerned that the dash might be too high for her if she were to drive the car. I raised the seat until I was pressed against the ceiling.

The overall cockpit is well designed. Almost all knobs and dials are reachable without much effort. Their placements all seem to make relative sense. As with all cars, you have to get accustomed to individual location. This is made easier when you realize that there was intentional placement and a logical grouping of buttons. I am not a fan of having a bright dashboard at night so I always look for a rheostat dimmer switch. The Sonata’s dimmer is a rocker switch located to the left of the steering wheel that dims or brightens the dash in prescribed increments, displayed on the dash. This is a nicer implementation, in my opinion, than a simple dial.

The dash combines analog dials with digital displays. The speedometer is analog as is an “ECO Guide” showing the amount of load you are putting on the car at the moment. Digital displays include the gas gauge and engine temp. The [EV Mode] light lets you know when the car is being powered exclusively by the battery and the [Ready] indicator lets you know the car is powered up and ready to go. All are easily seen through the steering wheel.

2013-Sonata-Dash

The ECO Guide, in my opinion, could have been better executed, however. The instructions are “blue is more eco and red is less eco.” This guide should show the point at which EV Mode will be forced to switch over to the engine due to load. Other hybrids, such as the Fusion Hybrid and the Gen3 Prius, have this feature and it allows the driver to push the pedal harder or lighter to either engage engine power or stay in EV mode.

Between the two large analog dials is the Trip Computer. I’ll try to keep it brief but I have a lot to say about the Trip Computer.

The amount of data you can glean from the Trip Computer is really quite substantial. There are nine different pieces of data you can view. Unfortunately, they are all on separate screens and you can only toggle through the screens in one direction. If you want to check the power split between the battery and the engine, you have to switch over to that screen. If you want to go back to instantaneous MPG, you have to flip all the way through all the other screens. You really just wanted to see two screens but had to flip through a total of nine. Some of them seem to have a lot of blank space while others had one piece of data (trip A, for example) accompanied by a large picture. It seems some could be combined with ease.

What is nice is that, according to the manual, the Trip Computer will display CAN-bus information. This is the type of information that illuminates a “check engine light” in other cars. The Trip Computer will display “Low Tire”, “Low Water”, Hybrid System Malfunction”, Hybrid Battery Issues”, and “Inverter Coolant Low”. I should also mention that this is where the “Door Open” and “Keys not in the vehicle” indicators appear. Additionally, if you press the (Start) button without your foot on the brake, the Trip Computer says, “Press Brake to Start Car”. So yeah, the Trip Computer really does convey a lot of information to the driver.

With all this information being displayed on the little screen, what’s left for the 7” LCD display? Primarily, Navigation and some screens about energy usage and efficiency.

The navigation seemed easy to use and the configuration screens made sense. There’s a list of previous destinations, which is nice if you find yourself going back to the same place multiple times but for some reason can’t remember where it is. One feature with the navigation I liked is that when you need to make a turn, it not only tells you to turn but also tells you the distance to and direction of your next turn. This might not seem like much to most people, but in large cities, it is common to have short distances between turns. Too many times I find myself trapped three lanes away from my turn. With this hint, you know whether an immediate lane change will be required even before you make the first turn.

Apparently, as you drive, you have the ability to earn “ECO Points” and “ECO Rewards”. I have been trying to figure out what I do with these. Can I cash them in like Skee-Ball tickets to get an oversized plastic comb? Am I supposed to post my ECO points online and compete with other HSH drivers? I drove around town, clocked a couple hundred miles, averaged 39.6mpg and earned 11 ECO Points. The weird part is that the first time I found this screen, I had 11 ECO points. Several days of climbing MPG later, I still had 11 ECO Points. What am I supposed to do to earn ECO Points? I don’t know what they are but I know I want them.

2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

There are three screens in the Hybrid Technology Display: Earth, Car, and Energy Flow. The Energy Flow is a really nice representation of the energy transition from ICE to Battery and Wheels. This is the typical hybrid screen we all know and love. Then there is the Earth screen in which there is a globe that spins and you can see energy flowing from the Engine, to the globe and then to the electric motor. A series of bars give you an ECO Level of some kind. The Car screen shows a side-view of the Sonata Hybrid rolling along a road. Leafs blow past and trees grow in the background as you drive more efficiently. A series of bars give you an ECO Level. The Energy Flow screen I get; I love watching this screen to see how I’m using the ICE and battery. The other two just aren’t for me. I clearly don’t understand them and I found them to be little more than screen savers.

2013-Sonata-MyEcoScore 250One of the available screens is called the “My Eco MPG” screen. It is a rolling bar chart showing your entire drive in 2.5-mile increments. A blue horizontal line represents the EPA mpg rating so you can see how each 2.5-minute segment compares. This type of display is good and bad at the same time. The bad part is that they only show you the past after there’s nothing you can do about it. In order for it to be good and useful, you must actually use the information. If you really want to improve your mileage, you would watch the “My Eco MPG” screen making notes of the segments where you see the lowest mpg. The next day – since you most likely drive the same route to work every day – try something different to see if you can improve the mileage of that segment. Sadly, most drivers wouldn’t take the time or make such an effort. Those of us who enjoy that type of constant monitoring in order to turn our boring commutes into a video game, however, love it.

2013-Sonata-AC-Controls-250Under the 7” screen is the Air conditioning cluster. At first, I was put off by the airflow indicator, which is a representation of an occupant showing air blowing at face-level, chest-level, and/or in the foot well. It just struck me as too large in comparison to the other buttons until I realized each part of the ‘body’ was a button in itself allowing the selection of airflow. With this display, there is no mistaking where the air is blowing.

Since it was particularly cold when I was driving this car, I became pretty familiar with the air conditioner. Specifically, the heater. I kept the heater on “Auto”, set to 65° and was pleasantly surprised with how quickly the cabin came up to temperature. The automatic A/C adjusted the airflow, temperature, and direction as needed. Of course, running the heater makes the engine run more, which in turn reduces overall mileage. But seriously, when it’s 21° outside get over it. Besides, once the cabin was up to temperature, the engine was free to shut off again.

Speaking of air conditioning, I drove the Sonata Hybrid in an unseasonably cold November. With the outside temps in the 30s, the cabin heated quickly and the auto A/C maintained comfortable conditions.  Of course, some of the credit goes to the heated leather seats. Oh how I love heated seats.

Under the A/C controls is a clever little hidden cubby. Always a fan of using every square inch of space, I really liked this little nook. It’s just large enough for a pair of sun glasses or perhaps to throw in a wallet or phone if you don’t want someone to see it. The push-button opener looks like an accent detail and the door closes so flush a passerby wouldn’t even notice it.

2013-Sonata-Manual-GloveboxThe glove box is nothing worth mentioning other than that it is so small – and the owner’s manual so massive – that the glove box is actually just a holder for the manual. Seriously, the encyclopedia is comprised of the manual for the car, the manual for the navigation, tire information, and various pamphlets with warnings and advisories. The nice part is that it’s all contained in a holder pouch. The pouch also has a small pad of paper for taking notes and a ball-point pen.  Seriously: it comes with a ballpoint pen.

Driving Impressions

The first thing you notice when you start the car is that it plays a little tune and the dash animates. It plays the same tune when you shut the car off. This was very refreshing and sort of put me in a good mood from the start. The first time. And perhaps the second. By the end of the week, the song was getting a little old.

Let me say this: for not being a CVT, the gear shifting is remarkably smooth. This is from a Prius driver who has cringes anymore when I feel gears shifting. I was pleasantly impressed and actually had to look it up online to verify that the Sonata Hybrid actually has gears. Additionally, there wasn’t a lot of engine noise when the car switched from EV to engine. Of course, you hear the engine during high-rev and high-load situations. Overall, I felt that the car is very well insulated from outside noise. Very little road noise or wind noise at interstate speeds.

There is an aggressive use of the EV at low speeds. When I say “aggressive use” in reference to EV Mode, I’m referring to the car’s desire to use the battery and keep the engine off. I shuttled the car from one parking lot, onto a street, and into another parking lot, traveling a couple hundred yards and was in EV the entire time. The aggressive EV Mode shines when moving through low-speeds situation: parking lots, school zones, etc.

One of – if not the – most energy demanding situation for a vehicle is starting from a dead stop such as coming from a red light. With an aggressive EV mode, the Sonata Hybrid removes the high-throttle situation and allows the car to draw on the battery and electric motor. This seems like a good trade-off because you will have ample opportunity to replace the charge while driving.

However, this good idea still needs some refinement. There is a weird transition from dead-stop EV acceleration to engaging the engine. Work with me on this one: I’ve been thinking about this for several days and this is the only way I can think to explain what I was feeling. If you’ve ever driven a car with sluggish gear transitions, you know that there’s a brief moment between gears in which the car seems to stop accelerating. It’s not decelerating, mind you, just ever-so-briefly not accelerating. This is what I occasionally experienced with the transition from EV to engine when accelerating from a dead stop.

The acceleration through EV was acceptable. It was when EV mode disengaged and the engine took over that there was a moment of hesitation as though the engine was engaging just one second too late. It’s like the EV was handing over control to the engine but the engine wasn’t ready to take over. This was not an “every time” experience. I cannot explain whether it was my foot pressure or if it had to do with the temperature of the engine or its ability to lock into a gear on demand. But when it did happen, there was a sensation of “I’m not accelerating anymore.”

Am I making too much of this? At first I thought I was until I started reading other reviews and saw similar references. There are a few times in my regular commute where I turn left from a dead-stop waiting for a gap in the oncoming cars. When I initiate the turn and the acceleration pauses, my eyes immediately looked out the right window to see the approaching cars.

Hyundai has implemented a power strategy they call Blue Drive. Blue Drive uses a software algorithm to moderate the engine output and acceleration power curve in order to make the overall driving experience as fuel efficient as possible. By default, Blue Drive is engaged when you start the car. For high-acceleration or heavy load situations, there is a button on the steering wheel to disengage Blue Drive. When blue drive is active, the background of the trip computer is blue. When Blue Drive is inactive, the background trip computer is black.

Taking it one step further, the Sonata Hybrid has Sports Mode in which you can manually shift gears. Getting into Sports Mode is easy enough by sliding the shifter to the left into the manual shifting slots. In the same way that disengaging Blue Drive turns the dash black, sliding into Sports Mode turns the dash red. I played around with Sports Mode for a little while but quickly grew tired of having to think about shifting. I’m perfectly content not having to worry about shifting gears, thank you.

I really wanted to know how the Sonata Hybrid would perform in colder temperatures and what kinds of mileage numbers the average driver should expect. The temperatures ranged from 21° on the first day and 50° on the second-to-last day. To that end, my driving was not my regular hypermiling cautiousness. The heater was on almost the entire time and though I certainly incorporated smart driving techniques I was by no means really trying to “work” the car.

The EPA places the mileage for the Sonata Hybrid at 36c/40h with a combined 38. I was driving the Limited trim, which takes a 1-mpg hit with a combined 37mpg. Resetting the mileage statistics seemed like a chore and I was more interested in getting inside a warm building. As a result, I was keeping track of my overall, one-week rolling total. Kicking it off, at 21° I saw 36.5mpg; not bad for the very first day driving the car considering I didn’t yet know its ins and outs. Six days later, at 50°, the rolling total had moved up to 39.9mpg.

I returned it in the morning of the seventh day. I reset the mileage stats because I wanted to see how well I had come to know the car. At 36°, travelling 24 city and residential miles, I averaged 43.8mpg. This is 21% higher than the EPA city rating of 36mpg. This number was achieved purely by timing stoplights, not being aggressive, using the Blue Drive setting, and braking wisely. All basic stuff. No advanced or ‘crazy’ hypermiling techniques were involved. I was happily surprised.

Familability

The Sonata is a sedan capable of seating four adults comfortably. The front seats are very comfortable. The passenger seat can recline all the way back for napping on long trips. Additionally, I was surprised how far back the seats will slide providing a huge amount of legroom.

All the legroom comes at the expense of the backseat passenger. Though there is enough room in the back seat for a passenger to sit comfortably, they shouldn’t expect to do much with the front seats slid back. I’ve spent my share of time on airplanes and felt the front seat of the Sonata was more encroaching than the average airplane seat.

There are a total of 4 cup holders and 4 bottle holders. 2 each are located front and back. The difference between a cup holder and bottle holder is that the bottle holders are located at the bottom of each door and would most likely spill a cup. The two front cup holders are located in the center console. The rear two are contained in the pull-down arm rest.

2013-Sonata-Audio-JacksIn the center dashboard console are two cigarette-lighter style power outlets. In the 21st century, I would expect at least one actual 110v two-prong outlet. There is also a USB plug and an auxiliary audio plug. The USB is designed for phone integration. Unfortunately, my iPhone did not work with the Sonata Hybrid. This is not 2013-Sonata-MediaConnectionError 250-147
Hyundai’s fault. A quick search of the Internet revealed that Apple changed their phone integration something-or-another. Many users of iOS7 are reporting the same problems with multiple makes and models of vehicles. Many users had successful integration prior to upgrading their iPhone. My hope is that either Apple or Hyundai will be able to fix the problem with a simple software update.

The left and right side of the rear seats heat separately. Each side also has their own reading light, which does a nice job of providing light to the occupant without infringing on other passengers. Sitting in the back, there seems to be ample headroom for an adult but I question the comfort of anyone much taller than six foot or so. Built-in child seat braces are strategically located and easily accessible.

Many hybrid sedans are forced to trade trunk space for battery size. The Sonata Hybrid sports a decent sized truck. The floor size is 45 inches wide, 25 inches deep and 21 inches high. I was able to fit nine paper shopping bags with no problems. There was room on top for those high items. The rear lip of the trunk is low enough that not only is it easy to get the bags into the trunk, getting them out is just as easy without having to worry about throwing out your back.

2013-Sonata-Trunk-Bags

One of the more curious items is the trunk pass-through. Though the opening is larger, the battery creates an obstruction throttling it down to 7 inches wide 2013-Sonata-Trunk-PassThroughand six inches tall. This is not much. Additionally, the opening is half-way up the side of the trunk. Short things could be rested on the shelf created by the battery but if the item were that small you wouldn’t need to pass it through. This means any item long and thin enough to pass through will be dangling in the middle of the trunk. There reaches a point where having the pass-through is just more hassle than it’s worth. Unless, of course, the parts are the same for the non-hybrid version and there’s an efficiency of scale.

Overall Conclusion

I honestly enjoyed driving the Sonata Hybrid. Of course, I had the Limited trim package so we should take that into consideration. I like the styling of the exterior and feel that it reflects Hyundai’s desire to have the Sonata taken seriously as an introductory luxury sedan. I had no problem parking the Sonata Hybrid in front of my house or driving it around town.

Once inside, the cabin welcomes you in as it closes out the exterior noises. The cockpit seems very well thought-out and almost everything on the center console is easy to reach while driving without extending or getting distracted. The optional panoramic roof becomes less optional once you experience it in person. I was pleased with the speed at which the cabin heats cold weather. The leather seats are comfortable and heating them helps cut through the chill.

I understand why Hyundai keeps the car in EV mode during dead-stop acceleration but feel the transition from battery to engine could be much smoother. Beyond that nuance, the overall driving experience was pleasurable and seemed very refined. Average driving seemed capable of meeting or exceeding the EPA ratings for MPG. Even introductory hypermiling techniques – simple smart driving – allows for easy hypermiling status. There are more than enough digital screens to help the driver maximize mileage. Perhaps too many.

My cold-weather mileage experience pleasantly surprised me. My mileage met the EPA estimate on my coldest day and substantially passed it as the weather turned warmer. I’m looking forward to driving this car again in the summer to test its capabilities in better conditions.

The Sonata Hybrid is a capable family car with plenty of room for a family of four. The seats are ample for the kids to have their own space. The trunk is nicely sized and should prove sufficient for carrying the family’s things or a shopping trip.

In the end, I truly enjoyed my time with the Sonata Hybrid. Hyundai might have some old-standing opinions to change but with more vehicles like this one, I think they just might win them over.

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Article,EPA,Hypermiling

Why we Hypermile

2 Apr , 2016  

I’m in the process of recording these articles in a series of videos.  Click the image to the left to watch them.  While there, be sure to subscribe to the channel.


Introduction

There are many reasons to hypermile.  A while back,  some friends and I came up with about five different and distinct reasons. I’ll try to recap them (assuming I can remember them). The point is not that there is one specific reason to hypermile. Nor is it to argue that any one reason is better than the others. The point is this: any reason to improve your car’s mileage is a good reason.

Save Money

This one is pretty easy.  The less gasoline you consume, the more money you save.  The problem is perception and association.  When people go to the gas station, they complain about the cost of gasoline.  But when they are driving, they act as though gasoline is free.  The problem is that people only feel the pain of purchasing gasoline when they are actually at the station.  After that point, they quickly forget. They fail to associate the pain of buying gas with the way they drive.

Perhaps it would help if we replace gasoline with something else.  If gasoline is $2.00 per gallon and you have a 15 gallon tank, that’s $30 for a fill-up.  If you took that same $30 and purchased several gallons of milk, you might think of it a little differently.  Let’s say your child poured a large glass of milk and only drank half of it before pouring the rest down the sink. There’s a very high probability you’d get upset.  Why?  Are you concerned that the world is running out of milk cows?  Nope.  Are you worried that milk might clog the pipes?  Probably not.  What really gets you riled up is the realization that you paid real money for that milk and your kid is wasting it.

Replace “milk” with gasoline and “kid” with you. Then you will realize it is no different than when you buy a full tank of gasoline and drive in such a way as to waste much of it.  Why is wasting gasoline perfectly justifiable when wasting milk pisses you off?  There is no difference between wasting money spent on gasoline and wasting money spent on other things.  People just need to see it.

FuelEconomy.gov provides a simple calculator. You can enter your current average MPG as “Car 1” and speculate a 5% MPG improvement as “Car 2”. This puts hard numbers right in front of you. https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/savemoney.shtml

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, burning one gallon of pure gasoline produces 19.64 pounds of Carbon Dioxide emissions. Burning one gallon of pure diesel produces 22.38 pounds.

I have to admit that I see “pounds of CO2” and have no idea what that means. Thank you, Google! The Natural Resources Defense Council does the best job, in my opinion, of making this rather abstract concept tangible. In short, filling a balloon with one pound of CO2 would swell the balloon to about two and a half feet across. That’s about 8.2 cubic feet. Compare that to a basketball, which is 9.5 inches with a volume of 0.26 cubic feet. This means burning one gallon of pure gasoline releases the equivalent of 31 basketballs of pure Carbon Dioxide.

This is why running your gasoline car in a closed garage will kill you. And quick. Here’s the rub: we all live in one giant garage. So far, its enormous size has been working in our favor. But everything (yes, everything) has its limit. Every day the average American fills up about 57 of those Carbon Dioxide balloons, emitting 467 cubic feet of CO2. You know those 10-foot moving trucks? That’s about four and a half of those. And that’s just you on just one day.

Considering all the gasoline burned in cars in the US and all over the world would create a staggeringly large number, no doubt. So let’s add to it. Large amounts of oil distilled to produce gasoline are shipped across the oceans in large tankers running huge diesel engines, they add to the total. Then there are the gasoline trucks that make deliveries to the gas stations; they add to the total.

What does all this Carbon Dioxide have to do with greenhouse gas? In case you haven’t heard, CO2 is a heat-trapping gas. When it’s in the atmosphere, it becomes the glass ceiling of a greenhouse, trapping heat in the atmosphere. Everyone knows what it feels like to walk into a greenhouse and that’s essentially what we’re doing as we pump increasing amounts of Carbon Dioxide into the air. As though that’s not bad enough, CO2 is the longest-lasting greenhouse gas, which means your great-grandkids will be affected by your tailpipe emissions.

So it’s not enough to just consider your driving habits and calculate your contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. You have to consider everyone else and all the shipping and transporting that goes into making and moving your gasoline. But if we can find a way to consume less gasoline, fewer tankers would need to traverse the oceans and fewer trucks would be needed for deliveries. In the end, fewer emissions would be emitted all around.

Less Consumption and Fewer Imports (excuse my rant)

No matter who you talk to, they will all agree that it’s a good idea to reduce the amount of foreign oil we import.  The United States imports a lot of oil from countries run by regimes who use our money to fund the fighters who kill American service men and women.  The regimes themselves engage in atrocities we would never condone within our own borders.  Even though we don’t like them, considering we disagree with much of what they do, and ignoring that they fund the people who are willing to die in their quest to kill us, we continue to willingly send them more and more of our hard-earned money.

If we cannot convince Americans how to connect the dots between our gasoline addiction and our dying soldiers, then we are doomed as a country.  As long as we continue to fund both sides of the war, it will never end.

In this election year, there has been a lot of rhetoric about the need to secure our borders. A need to be more self-reliant and beholden to no one.  These people stand around pounding their chests, declaring their undying love for the United States, waving Chinese-manufactured American flags as they pledge allegiance to this once-great republic.  When they have finished their empty promises to protect the U.S. with their last dying breath, they climb into their unnecessary gas guzzling megatruck because a commercial was all it took to convince them that they aren’t manly unless they have best-in-class towing wrapped in military-grade construction, whatever that means.

So let’s set the record straight and expose the truth:

Like any drug dealer, many of the OPEC countries supplying so much of our oil have exactly one viable commodity.  Their entire livelihood relies on others continuously purchasing it.  Without the addicts purchasing their product, they would quickly go broke.  If Americans truly cared about gaining independence, if they actually wanted to undermine those who wish to cause us harm, they would realize that their addiction funds their own destruction.

Here is a page at Energy.gov discussing Energy and National Security: http://energy.gov/public-services/national-security-safety

If these chest-thumping Americans were truly serious about securing our borders, they would prove their commitment by being more concerned with how wasteful they are than how manly they appear.  If they truly wanted to undermine those who wish to destroy us, they would realize that by saving fuel, we could starve our enemies into submission.  Unfortunately, they are too brainwashed to see it and too addicted to care.

Less wear and tear on your vehicle

A huge majority of the hypermiling techniques hinge around driving in such a way that is easy on your vehicle.  For example, rather than accelerating as hard as possible, hypermiling teaches an acceleration method that doesn’t overwork the engine.  Once you have reached an acceptable cruising speed, you should let off on the accelerator to allow the engine to find its own sweet spot.  These two methods will extend the life of your engine.

Rather than racing to a stoplight, hypermiling teaches to allow coasting to naturally slow you down, or to use regenerative braking to decelerate.  People who use these techniques can see their brake pads last for many years.

Anecdotally, driving more efficiently will extend the life of your car and all its parts. This is evidenced by Prius owners who replace their brake pads after more than 100,000 miles. It’s hard – if not completely impossible – to find hard-fast evidence that efficient driving will absolutely extend the life of your car. There are simply way too many variables at play. However, there are too many people telling too many stories to disregard it.

Cleaner Air

No one with any grasp of reality would expect to be able to burn something without releasing gaseous emissions. I’ve already addressed greenhouse gas emissions, but there are other gases released. These typically stay lower in the atmosphere and form a brownish haze called smog (Smoke fog). To be clear, this has nothing to do with a gold-loving dragon in Middle Earth, but that would be awesome.

Some of the primary contributors to smog are nitrogen oxide, non-methane organic gases, carbon monoxide, various particulate matter, and formaldehyde. These are things you would never ever intentionally breathe if you had a choice. And yet, we drive vehicles that put them in our air, where we breathe them. So, I suppose, since we are the ones polluting the air we breathe, we are intentionally breathing them. It all works out.

Visually, smog makes clean air dirty. It looks bad to have a brown – or gray – haze lingering around your city. Health-wise, smog can make it difficult to breath. People who already have difficulties breathing can die from smog. Even those who are healthy should avoid smog because the gases in the air get into lungs and can coat the tiny air sacks. And just like that, people who were healthy before now fall into the “difficulty breathing” category.

Improvements in vehicle efficiencies have made great strides in reducing the emissions of smog-forming chemicals. But every little bit helps. If everyone did a little something, then together we could make a huge impact. In addition to driving more efficiently, start looking for the “Smog Rating” that is now required on all new car stickers.

Conclusion

Though many people tend to focus on a singular reason to drive more efficiently, there are many reasons. Regardless of anyone’s personal interest, it is in their interest to drive more efficient vehicles more efficiently.

If you find yourself trying to defend fuel-efficient driving to different people, you might want to re-read this article several times. It will give you a good starting point from which you can bring a person into the discussion and potentially help them see why fuel efficiency matters.

Table of Contents

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Features,Hypermiling

Braking

5 Mar , 2016  

I’m in the process of recording these articles in a series of videos.  Click the image to the left to watch them.  While there, be sure to subscribe to the channel.


-Tony Schaefer

From time to time, someone will ask, “what is the best way to brake?” This is a really good question because there are actually different ways to brake. Just to be clear, occasionally someone will do something very stupid in their car that will create a situation in which you must ignore everything you are about to read. In no way should you value hypermiling over your safety, the safety of your occupants, or the integrity of your vehicle. Everything you are going to read in this post refers to non-emergency situations.

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