A petrol-powered car that can cover over 4,300 miles on a single gallon of petrol has been built by Canadian students.
The Alerion Supermileage team from Laval University in Quebec were taking part in the Shell Eco-marathon – an annual event that challenges students from around the world to design, build and test hyper-efficient vehicles.
Taking first place in the prototype category, the single-seat ultra-light car achieved 4,306 mpg (imperial) – the equivalent of 1,524 km on a single litre of petrol.
The Eco Marathon features vehicles powered petrol, battery electric (including solar), petrol alternative, diesel, alternative diesel and hydrogen. The competition comes to Europe next month before moving on to Asia.
In 2010, a team of French students have built a single-seat diesel-powered car that can achieve 8,372 mpg – the equivalent of driving from London to Rome for one litre of fuel that cost around £1.20.
The car has CO2 emissions of 0.88g/km – less than one tenth of the most recent Toyota Prius hybrid (89g/km).
The most impressive fuel efficiency achieved at this year’s Shell eco marathon event at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz track in Germany earlier this month, however, was by a team of fellow French students from Polytech Nantes who managed the equivalent of 13,830mpg in fuel-cell electric car – the culmination of a five-year project.
The cars are optimised for fuel efficiency in every way possible. The contestants use their engines for very short bursts to boost their speed up and then coast until they lose momentum.
How can I increase my car’s MPG?
The cars competing in the Eco Marathon are built for fuel efficiency at any cost, but impressive fuel savings are possible with the average family hatchback. The driver of a 5-door family hatchback Peugeot 308 HDi in 2010 achieved an average fuel consumption of 89.95 mpg on public roads between Paris and Geneva – an improvement of almost 50 per cent on the manufacturer’s official figure.
Gentle driving and modest speed are the secret to boosting your car’s mpg figure, but you could also try the eco driving tips below.
| Eco driving | … at a glance |
|---|---|
 Take it smooth |
Avoiding harsh acceleration and braking saves fuel and reduces wear and tear – it also leaves you feeling more relaxed |
| Anticipate |
By looking as far as possible up the road it’s possible to reduce stop/start driving, thereby reducing fuel consumption and making you a safer driver into the bargain |
| Shed weight |
Remove unnecessary clutter from your car and you will use less fuel |
| Improve your aerodynamics |
If you don’t regularly use your roof rack or top box, remove it as it’s reducing the efficiency of your car |
Amoeba
A pretty amazing achievement, that while completely impractical, but nevertheless one that demonstrates how appalling the fuel-efficiency of modern cars really is. Modern cars have squandered efficiency savings for performance. It is estimated that cars would be 40% more efficient had the performance remained the same.
A standard roadster bicycle (appalling aerodynamics) offers 1584 mpg imp (10 mph). However, a Quest velomobile, offer 9265 mpg imp (10 mph) (a velomobile is streamlined and practical vehicle, and probably far cheaper than the ECO challenge vehicles.
Based upon energy equivalent of food.
I would have included links, but my experience leads me to believe it wouldn’t be published.
Anthony
Thanks Amoeba! Links would be welcome.
Other efficiency gains from vehicle maintenance, route planning, combining journeys, liftsharing, using the appropriate vehicle for the job (even those not in carshare schemes can choose between public transport, bike, walk, 4 wheels, etc). Be nice to have some idea of how far you need to travel to make a change of summer and winter tyres cost effective, some might appreciate that kind of info.
Yannick Read
We welcome links being included in comments…