May 19, 2008
Double Your Gas Mileage By "Hypermiling"
Expert Tells How, Then He, Benno Schmit, And Bianca Solorzano Give It A Go
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Play CBS Video Video Chicago-NYC One Tank Of Gas? Some common sense driving techniques will miraculously stretch your miles per gallon. Bianca Solorzano reports and Benno Schmitt test drives "Hypermiling" from Chicago to New York on one tank of gas.
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Video 'Hypermiling' To Huge Savings Wayne Gerdes drove from Chicago to New York in a Toyota Prius hybrid car using just nine gallons of gas. How? He used a technique called "hypermiling." Benno Schmidt reports.
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Wayne Gerdes and Bianca Solorzano (CBS/EARLY SHOW)
And that's the city from which The Early Show dispatched two drivers on a trip to New York -- contributor Benno Schmidt and Wayne Gerdes of CleanMPG.comCleanMPG.com.
Gerdes champions "hypermiling," which he says can as much as double your gas mileage.
Gerdes and his team hold the world record -- 2,250 miles in a single tank, which worked out to 164 miles per gallon.
He and Schmidt were both driving Toyots Priuses, but Gerdes was going to try to make the 800 mile trip on -- one tank of gas, by hypermiling it. Schmidt was going to drive "the old-fashioned" way.
On the show on Tuesday, they compared data.
Schmidt made it with only one fill-up. He hit the Big Apple after 14 hours of driving and almost 20 gallons of gas, having averaged 45 mpg.
Gerdes took a little longer -- 17 hours -- but only used 8.9 gallons, for an average of 71 mpg.
So, he did it -- going 800 miles on less than his 12-gallon tank held!
On The Early Show Monday, Gerdes explained the secrets of hypermiling to CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano.
Learn them yourself, and watch Gerdes and Schmidt departing the Windy City, by clicking on the arrow in the image below!:
Tuesday's update:
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