The Power of Scale – Why Fuel Efficient Driving Matters in Commercial Fleets
A nice short video from the Environmental Defense Fund demonstrating the power of scale when applied to fuel efficient driving in commercial fleets.
Driving Tips to Improve your Car’s Fuel Efficiency
Despite the ongoing debate on climate change, drivers across the world agree that fuel efficiency is the wave of the future. Car manufacturers are touting their eco principles and how their models will save you dollars at the pump. Meanwhile, governments are also requiring more transparency when it comes to green car ratings. In 2008, Australia began requiring stickers on all new cars that display their fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
However, fuel efficiency isn’t all about the car – some of it has to do with the way you drive. In an effort to call attention to fuel efficient driving habits, Peugeot automobiles in Europe is sponsoring a revolutionary eco-driving competition, The Peugeot Eco Cup, to promote awareness of how your driving style can impact fuel efficiency.
The Peugeot Eco Cup is a competition, for those with a new or used Peugeot, to showcase their eco-driving skills. Competitors from 18 countries will drive the 400 kilometres between Paris and Geneva (the same distance as driving from Perth to the port city of Albany) on as little diesel fuel as possible. The drive must be completed within 36 hours and the route includes a number of key cites that are symbolic to the Peugeot brand.
Each country will have a team that includes drivers for each of the four fuel efficient diesel models in the Peugeot line. The aim will be for competitors to make the trip burning as little fuel as possible by employing whatever “eco-driving” strategies they can.
While you might not be signed up to the Eco Cup Challenge, you can get your hands on one of the hot fuel efficient diesel models at a Sydney Peugeot dealer. There are also a number of driving strategies that you can take away to help improve the fuel efficiency of vehicle. Sensible eco-driving can make a difference to the environment and to your hip pocket.
Consider these fuel saving driving tips:
Pump up - Ensure your car’s tyres are inflated properly, inspecting them at least every two months. Underinflated tyres can decrease fuel efficiency by over 3%, and reduce their tread life, requiring them to be replaced sooner.
Switch Off - Turn off the air conditioning, especially when driving in the city. Air conditioning and other electronics consume energy which increases the need for fuel. This can decrease your vehicle’s fuel efficiency by as much as 25%.
Don’t Idle - If you stop for more than 20-30 seconds, turn off the engine. Restarting your engine actually consumes less fuel than idling for long periods of time.
Slow Down - Drive the speed limit, especially on highways. Driving faster will increase your engine’s RPMs which uses up more fuel – slowing down by 10 kilometres per hour can reduce petrol consumption by as much as 10%.
Steady on - Maintain a constant speed and avoid frequent braking and acceleration as this increases the fuel consumption of your vehicle. If your car has a speed regulator or cruise control, use it to maintain a constant speed. When slowing down, use engine stopping instead of applying the brakes to stretch your take even further.
The Eco Cup Challenge starts in Paris on 4 March 2010.
Fuelishness! Feed: Ford’s Focus on Eco-Driving; Pentagon’s Algae Fuel Research; Oil over $80; Lithium Supply for 1M Hybrids; ‘Stuck With Cars’ Discussion
- Ford’s new Focus on eco driving — It’s about being careful and not wasteful, both when it comes to the way a car runs and, indeed, how it is built in the first place and here Ford is reducing its carbon footprint with a range of sustainability initiatives.
. - Pentagon Researcher Promises Cheap Biofuel for Jets — Pentagon officials have been talking for years about weaning their jets off of fossil fuels. Now they say they’re only months away from producing a cheap fuel made from algae — for less than $3 a gallon.
. - Oil above $80 as traders eye low interest rates — Oil prices rose above $80 a barrel Monday in Asia, extending a three-week rally as investors expect the U.S. central bank to keep interest rates near zero to help fuel economic growth, which would boost crude consumption.
. - Energy for Electric Vehicles Dealt a Blow by Bolivian Lithium Production — Unfortunately for those who are expecting electric cars to spring out of the woodwork in the next few years (remembering that the President’s plan calls for 1 million plug-in hybrids by 2015) Mitsubishi estimates that the world will need 500,000 tons per year at full ramp up. The Salar di Uyuni deposit in Bolivia holds at least 9 million tons, although the country has, in total, perhaps as much as 73 million tons.
. - Stuck With Cars — Every weekday, tens of millions of Americans get into vehicles that are full of passenger space which won’t be used, with engines capable of horsepower and speeds that won’t be attained, holding fuel tanks that could power the car for distances that won’t be traveled. The result of all this over-engineering is that cars cost way more than a vehicle for daily commuting need cost, and they consume way more energy than a vehicle for daily commuting need consume.
Seven Million Miles and $882,000 Dollars Later…
Our little eco-driving community here at FuelClinic.com continues to grow.
Today we crossed the seven-million-mile mark of real-world fuel data based from members of our free non-commercial version of the site. There have been over 31,000 receipts entered into our database, documenting the real-world fuel efficiency of nearly 4,000 vehicles. We have been averaging ~500 new receipts a week for the past few months.
As a group we’ve purchased over 310,000 gallons of fuel (US gallon equivalent) spending over $882,000 (US dollar equivalent) last year. At the same time – as a group – we’ve managed to IMPROVE our MPG a modest 5.38% – saving over $47,000 simply by tracking our fuel mileage and (hopefully) taking advantage of the efficient driving tips.
My goals for 2010 include providing better, more compelling online training materials that will help us bring that 5.38% efficiency improvement up closer to 10% or more. I will be looking for help, using my new connections through the fantastic UCF Business Incubator Program to find talented people that can help me pull this off.
The FuelClinic Dashboard will start looking a little different in the next few weeks as I slowly roll out some template changes. The tools will remain familiar and simple to use, but room will be added to provide driving tips directly in the dashboard, as well as other important information now spread around and hidden in the blog (unless you are searching for it) like our free reminder magnet offer.
Shortly we will begin creating “eco-driver communities” that you can choose to join – so you can track your progress along with others in your same community, and challenge other communities to improve their fuel efficiency for some good natured competition.
I’ll be adding a document library. Over the years I have amassed a large collection of studies, reports, documents, press clippings, and other materials that will be added to the members area – behind that “Research Area” link at the top that has remained inactive too long. There will also be simple report tools you can use to “dig” into aggregate data in the FuelClinic database, looking for trends related to site usage, community totals and standings, and other goodies.
Members will also have to option to sign-up for bi-weekly “performance reports” that will be emailed to you automatically once every two weeks, covering your stats for the last two weeks, grading your progress, and providing additional tips for improving your fuel mileage.
There are always “more plans” for this platform, but they’ll remain “in the bag” for now. I appreciate the time each of you has taken to manually input your fuel receipts to build this data set.
- Michael
Shea Holbrook to Make Rookie World Challenge Run in 2010
GROVELAND, Fla. (Feb. 4, 2010) – Shea Racing, LLC. is proud to announce its participation in the World Challenge season opener, March 26-28, at St Petersburg, Fla. Team owner and driver Shea Holbrook, 19, of Groveland, Fla., will strap-in and make her debut professional road race in the World Challenge Touring Car (TC) class. According to series archives, Shea is one of the youngest female drivers to take the grid in World Challenge history.
Holbrook is a competitor thru-and-thru. Formerly a state-, regional- and nationally- ranked water-skier, she is no stranger to the thrill of speed or danger. A few years ago, Holbrook traded in the water skies for the smell of race fuel and burnt rubber.”It’s an awesome experience go over a jump at 50-plus mph to hurl yourself hundreds of feet thru the air, but it just doesn”t compare to going into turn 17 at Sebring at 100-plus mph,” Holbrook said.
Holbrook is currently a college student studying Broadcasting and wants to make motorsports a career.
“This being my first professional race, I have two goals,” Holbrook added. “First, to bring the car home in one piece and second, for all those veteran drivers out there that read this, regardless of where I finish, I plan on giving you all the respect that you deserve and I’m thankful for having the opportunity.”
There are many people in the motorsports world that have greatly enriched Holbrook’s life. People like John Doonan (Mazda Motorsports), George Ayres http://www.greenerspeed.com , Skip Baber Racing, Lyn St James http://www.lynstjames.com and Marcus Haselgrove http://autohausmotorsports.com, to mention a few, “thank you all for your friendship, wisdom and continued support.”
Currently Shea Racing’s primary sponsor is MD&F (Mom, Dad & Friends) but we are diligently trying to change this. We do have very creative marketing plan for interested companies that actually requires no upfront capital, so if you’re interested in finding out the details please contact www.SheaRacing.com .
We would like to thank World Challenge and SCCA Pro Racing for the opportunity and look forward to a great season. See you on the grid!
Learn more about Shea Racing at her website or on her Facebook Group Page.
VIDEO: Eco-Driving Techniques
In Europe, eco-driving is fairly popular as a means to save money and reduce emissions. Fuel costs are much higher than here in the US – fuel is heavily taxed and the per-gallon cost equivalent is $6 to $8 per gallon.
In Europe fuel is usually sold by the Liter and the standard of fuel economy is “Liters per 100 kilometers”, or “L/100km”. It’s an opposite system from of our MPG rating – where a higher MPG (“more miles per gallon”) is better, in Europe the opposite is true – the fewer liters per 100 kilometers (“L/100KM”) the better… so the lower the fuel economy rating you’ll hear in this video, the better.
The EU has decided to partner with Europia, an energy-giant in the EU, to continue to make motorists aware of the benefits of using eco-driving techniques.
We invite all motorists to start using FuelClinic.com to track their mileage using our easy online tools. FuelClinic is built to accommodate a variety of standards of measure, including MPG and L/100km, and a variety of currencies and other local preferences.
FLASH: #55 FuelClinic.com Camaro invited to race in “24 Minutes of Daytona” this weekend
Today I recieved a call from an excited race car team owner Mike Kern, “We’ve been invited to race in the Rolex 24 Heritage Exhibition (aka “The 24 Minutes of Daytona”)… and I need you to help me prep the car…”
The Camaro was on display at the Grassroots Motorsports Magazine tent area, as planned, but race organizers found Mike today and told him that he had been invited to race – but the email went to his previous job’s email account… so he didn’t know until today.
Mike and Kurt scrambled back to the shop to get all the fixings needed to get the Camaro prepped for the race, file the required paperwork, and get ready to move the car to the paddock tomorrow for race prep.
Race updates all weekend will be thru the FuelClinic Facebook Fan Page – become a fan of our page and stay updated to the happenings this weekend.
Configuring CarChip Pro for Hybrid Vehicles
I had a chance to test-drive the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid over the weekend. I connected one of our CarChip Pro data loggers to it to gather real-time data on speed, throttle position, engine load, and mass air flow. Unfortunately the CarChip Pro was not working properly with the Hybrid vehicle, and a quick inquiry to Davis Instruments revealed why, it needed to be configured specifically for a hybrid – or “Anomalous Vehicle” (something I was not aware of).
Here are the instructions for configuring a CarChip Pro for both the Toyota Prius, and the Ford Fusion Hybrid…
In the past we had issues with hybrids in general. However, we put a fix into the software that should allow the CarChip to work with Hybrids.
Below are directions on how to get the CC to work on hybrids. These were written for a Toyota, but it is the same for Ford, other than clicking on the Ford Hybrid option.
Because the Prius [and 2010Ford Fusion Hybrid] is a hybrid vehicle we must take special steps to configure the CarChip.
Open up the CarChip software with the CarChip device connected to the PC.
Go to the CarChip menu and choose “Set Anomalous Vehicle”. See Figure 1.
Following that select “Specific Exceptions”, then “Toyota Hybrid” then click “OK”. See Figure 2.
I’ll re-configure the CarChip Pro and test again the next time I get the chance. I’d like to hear from any existing CarChip Pro users who are using the device with a Hybrid. What has your experience been?
The Post-Crisis Consumer (John Gerzema @ TED)
John Gerzema says there’s an upside to the recent financial crisis — the opportunity for positive change. Speaking at TEDxKC, he identifies four major cultural shifts driving new consumer behavior and shows how businesses are evolving to connect with thoughtful spending.
13 trillion dollars in wealth has evaporated over the course of the last two years. We’ve questioned the future of capitalism. We’ve questioned the financial industry. We’ve looked at our government oversight. We’ve questioned where we’re going. And yet, at the same time, this very well may be a seminal moment in American history, an opportunity for the consumer to actually take control and guide us to a new trajectory in America.
“Drive like there’s a glass of water on your dashboard”
“Drive like there’s a glass of water on your dashboard” is one of the visualizations supposed to help drivers moderate jack-rabbit starts, wild turns, and sudden stops.
Engineers in Japan have responded:
Surely a fun demo of an interesting stabilizer system using an accelerometer to determine g-forces on the car/glass of water, apparent built on an open-source hardware framework called Arduino I have been looking at lately for a project of my own.
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
I’ll keep you posted.
“Racing Under Green” – January Schedule on Discovery networks
Green racing with VW TDI Motorsports
The 60-minute documentary takes an inside look at all of the elements that make the series unique. During the season, a broadcast crew followed the series 25 drivers and key leadership on track and off to capture the personalities behind the wheel of the equally-prepared Jetta TDI Cup racecars. The documentary was shot in high definition and also explores the environmentally-friendly aspects of the series, from biodiesel blends used to power the cars on the racetrack to the series support of CarbonFund.org.
Source: oneighturbo.com
In motorsports, theres more to the action than whats seen on the track by fans. Beginning the week of January 18, all of the behind-the-scenes drama of the countrys only professional clean diesel racing series will hit national television with a documentary on the season, titled Racing Under Green.
The compete one-hour documentary film will be aired multiple times across Discovery Communications’ networks (All times Eastern, check local listings for channel information).
- January 18th, 2010 @ 2 AM on DISCOVERY CHANNEL Premiere
- January 19th, @ 9 PM on PLANET GREEN
- January 22nd, 2010 @ 7 AM on SCIENCE CHANNEL
- January 24th, @ 10 PM and 1 AM on HD THEATER
- January 25th, @ 6 PM HD THEATER
- January 29th, @ 3 PM and 5 AM HD THEATER
- January 30th, @ 8 AM HD THEATER
- Volkswagen Motosport
Hacked? (Confirmed)… Fixed!
On certain browsers I’m seeing “Online Casino” links somehow injected into the Fuelishness! Blog titles and content. If you are seeing this also, please let me know in the comments or using the feedback tab. It only appears to effect IE, because Firefox and Chrome appear ok. Anyone have a clue where to start looking for this one? – Michael
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Confirmed… only shows up on Googlebot scans and certain browsers, there goes my page rank… asking hosting provider to restore from a backup or upgrade the site to a fresh install. I think it might be time to use a different blog package – this is the third or forth time we’ve been hacked this year.
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Thanks to the always impressive customer service of HostMySite/Hosting.com (and Brady, thank you very much) the codebase got a fresh install of the latest version of WordPress, and I’m not seeing the sneaky injections in my tests of the site. Might be a few more days before Google is corrected, hopefully my PageRank will be restored.
Thank you Brady at Hosting.com VPS support – it’s a Christmas miracle! (I couldn’t resist.)
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