Hypermiling Techniques

Hypermiling is the art of driving economically and exceeding a vehicle manufacturer’s stated efficiency by modifying your driving habits and techniques.

The word “hypermiling” was added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2008, when it was named their “Word of the Year”.

The term was originally coined by Wayne Gerdes, who is considered by many in the hypermiling community to be the “father of hypermiling.” Hypermiling is a great way to save on fuel costs and also encourages safer motoring. These techniques could help reduce your fuel usage and costs by up to 40 percent — and I personally have seen a 35–40 percent increase in my MPG by using the techniques and tips below. See my Hypermiling Blog to read about my experiences.

Hypermiling Safely

Before we get into the techniques, I want to address the safety concerns that have given hypermilers a lot of bad press. Hypermiling, like any other driving technique, can be dangerous if used on the wrong road or in unsuitable traffic conditions. Please always be aware of other road users and do not endanger yourself or others for the sake of saving a few miles per gallon.

We encourage safe and considerate driving at all times.

Hypermiling Basics

There are a few things worth sorting out before you even think about your driving style. We suggest you:

  • Track your MPG. Keep detailed records of your mileage and fuel usage so you can gauge your hypermiling efforts. Use our MPG Calculator or download our apps for Apple and Android.
  • Keep your car well maintained and serviced regularly. Some hypermilers opt for a thinner oil to optimise MPG — thinner oil means less energy is required to turn the engine.
  • Remove excess weight — golf clubs, tool boxes, prams and pushchairs all add up.
  • Check your tyre pressures. We do not recommend over-inflating your tyres, as this can cause premature wear and potential blow-outs. Low tyre pressure increases drag and reduces MPG.
  • Keep the windows up. An open window causes drag.
  • Keep the air-con off. Air conditioning can decrease fuel consumption by up to 10 percent in some cases.
  • Remove unused roof racks or bike racks — they increase drag even when empty.
  • Don’t drive in big, thick-soled shoes. They reduce the sensitivity you need at the throttle. The best hypermiling comes from feeling how the car responds to your right foot — two inches of sole doesn’t help with that.

Common Hypermiling Terms

  • FE – Fuel Economy
  • DWB – Driving Without Brakes
  • FAS – Forced Auto Stop (coasting with the engine off)
  • P&G – Pulse and Glide
  • ICE – Internal Combustion Engine
  • D-FAS – Draft-Assisted FAS (coasting with the engine off while drafting — not recommended)

Hypermiling Top Tips

Here are our top 5 hypermiling driving tips:

  1. Don’t drive. The best hypermiling tip we could ever give. Not driving saves you 100 percent of your fuel, keeps you healthier, and saves on vehicle maintenance. Short journeys are the worst offenders — a cold engine never reaches its optimal working temperature, leading to increased wear and terrible economy.
  2. Drive defensively. Anticipate the road ahead. By driving reactively, you hand control of your fuel consumption — and your safety — to other drivers. Look well ahead so you’re aware of what’s coming and can anticipate changes before they happen. To do that, you need to leave adequate following distance.
  3. Drive Without Brakes (DWB). Every time you brake, you’re converting fuel into heat and brake dust. Lifting off early and letting the engine do the decelerating uses your car’s stored momentum and, on a modern engine, costs you no fuel at all.
  4. Slow down! The faster you go, the more drag and resistance acts on your car. Reducing your cruising speed by around 20mph can improve your MPG by up to 45 percent.
  5. Coast. Removing your foot from the accelerator when approaching a junction or red light is one of the main reasons hybrid vehicles achieve such excellent city fuel consumption. A modern engine uses no fuel at all when coasting in gear. We wouldn’t recommend coasting with the engine off, but simply lifting off early makes a real difference. Read more in our dedicated coasting techniques guide.

How to Hypermile

Concentrate

High concentration is the key to becoming a successful hypermiler. I’d go as far as to say it requires more concentration to hypermile effectively than to drive fast. A lapse in focus doesn’t just cost you fuel economy — it puts you and others at risk. We suggest you:

  • Switch your mobile off
  • Turn off the radio
  • Ask passengers to keep noise to a minimum
  • Keep conversation to a minimum while driving

These might sound harsh, but you’ll be surprised how quickly your hypermiling efforts unravel when your mind is elsewhere.

Drive Less

Even without hypermiling, one of the most effective ways to use less fuel is simply to drive less. That could mean:

  • Using public transport
  • Car sharing or lift sharing (see “Slugging” below)
  • Walking, cycling, or running
  • Moving closer to work

Slugging

“Slugging”, “instant carpooling”, or “casual carpooling” is a term from the USA. It involves the creation of free, unofficial, ad-hoc carpool networks — often with published routes and designated pick-up and drop-off locations. During rush hour, drivers pull up to the queue for their route, call out their destination and how many passengers they can take, and depart once the car is full. A major advantage of slugging is that vehicles carrying enough passengers can use High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, significantly cutting journey times.

Get Your Fuel for the Best Price

Using hypermiling techniques helps you get the most out of every tank, but it also pays to start with the cheapest fuel you can find. Check a site like PetrolPrices.com for the best prices in your area before setting off — it saves driving around looking for a deal.

Keep an eye out for supermarket fuel vouchers too. Many offer discounts of up to 5p per litre when you spend a certain amount in store. Just make sure you’re buying things you actually need. That 5p per litre saves you around £2.50 on a typical 50-litre fill.

Choose the Right Route

The shortest route isn’t always the best when you’re hypermiling. Smooth, uninterrupted driving is far more efficient than stop-start town driving. A slightly longer route that keeps you moving steadily will often beat a shorter route full of traffic lights and junctions — and your MPG will show it.

Turn It Off

If you regularly face railway crossings or queuing traffic, switch your engine off as soon as it’s safe to do so. When idling, you’re doing zero MPG. Extended idling can also contribute to engine overheating. As a rule of thumb, idling for more than 10 seconds is a waste of fuel.

Parking

Don’t waste time circling for the closest space. You’ll burn fuel looking for it, and you’ll likely find another car parked in front of you — meaning a lengthy manoeuvre just to get out.

Instead, park further away in a forward-facing spot — sometimes called “face out” parking. You can start up and drive straight off. If possible:

  • Pick a spot on a slight downhill — use gravity to get moving.
  • In summer, find shade so you can avoid using air conditioning.
  • In winter, face your car into the morning sun to help defrost the windscreen — or better still, use a cover overnight to prevent ice forming altogether. The amount of fuel wasted by people leaving their engines running to defrost the glass is considerable.

Your Oil Matters

Keeping on top of your vehicle servicing is essential for any driver who wants their car to perform efficiently. Using a low-viscosity engine oil — within your manufacturer’s recommended specification — can improve MPG and help extend engine life by reducing internal friction. Many hypermilers opt for a high-grade fully synthetic oil for exactly this reason.

Winter Hypermiling Tips

Cold weather is hard on fuel economy. Some claim it can reduce MPG by more than half. Here’s why:

  • Snow, ice, rain and road grit all make the car work harder to keep moving.
  • Cold reduces tyre pressure, leading to more rolling resistance and wasted fuel.
  • Cold air is denser than warm air, which increases aerodynamic drag — especially at higher speeds.
  • Engine and transmission oil thickens in low temperatures, requiring more energy to turn the engine over.

To minimise the cold’s impact on your fuel:

  • Reduce idling. Use your garage if you have one, or cover your windscreen overnight to avoid scraping in the morning.
  • Park facing the sun. Let it do the defrosting for you instead of sitting with the engine running.
  • Clear snow from the car. It adds weight and drag — both work against your MPG.
  • Set your alarm 10 minutes earlier. Give yourself extra time so you’re not tempted to rush on icy roads to make up for a slow start.

And always keep a warm jacket in the car during winter. Waiting for breakdown assistance for over an hour in the cold is no fun. Trust me — I know.

Summer Hypermiling Tips

In summer — or on the occasional warm days we get in the UK — heat becomes your enemy. The instinct when you get into a hot car is to open the windows or blast the air conditioning. Both cost you MPG. Here’s how to manage it:

  • Park in the shade wherever possible — under trees, next to buildings, anywhere out of direct sun.
  • Use a silver windscreen reflector to deflect heat when you can’t find shade.
  • Leave windows slightly open if you can do so safely — it’s far better for your fuel economy than air conditioning.
  • Below 40mph, open windows cause very little aerodynamic drag — still a better option than running the air-con.
  • If you must use air conditioning, set it to recirculate mode. This cools the air already inside the car rather than drawing in warm air from outside — far more efficient.
  • Hang a towel or sun shade in the rear windows to block direct sunlight for passengers in the back. Old-fashioned, but very effective.

Hypermiling Gadgets

There are a number of gadgets designed to help you monitor your MPG and driving behaviour. Many plug into your car’s OBD-II diagnostics port and can read data directly from the ECU — including throttle position, air-to-fuel ratios, and speed. These can be a great way to get instant feedback on your driving.

We also have our own MPG Calculator to help you track your fuel consumption over time.

Fuel Additives

Fuel additives work by improving combustion — typically by creating a finer fuel mist. They won’t deliver the same gains as changing your driving style, but combined with the techniques on this page, they can contribute to some genuinely impressive results.

See our review of the Aderco Fuel Additive for our real-world experience with fuel additives.

Hybrid Drivers

If you drive a hybrid, head over to our Hybrid Hypermiling Techniques page. That said, most of the techniques on this page still apply to hybrids — so keep reading too.

Advanced Hypermiling Techniques

Coasting

There are three types of coasting, each with its own advantages and trade-offs.

In-Gear Coasting

When coasting in gear, most modern engines cut fuel injection entirely — meaning you’re using zero fuel. The engine is kept turning over by the car’s own forward momentum.

This works best when you need to come to a standstill, such as at a busy junction. Your coasting distance is shorter than in neutral due to engine braking, but you use no fuel in the process. It also keeps the car in gear at all times, giving you full control — which is why it’s considered the safest form of coasting.

Neutral Coasting

In neutral, the engine needs fuel to maintain idle revs — that’s its main downside compared to in-gear coasting. However, the absence of engine braking means you can coast much further.

This makes neutral coasting better suited to situations where you want to minimise deceleration, such as on a motorway or on a downhill stretch. Many hypermilers use it on hills to extend their coasting distance — and sometimes pick up a little extra speed in the process.

Engine-Off Coasting (FAS — Forced Auto Stop)

This involves switching the engine off while the car is still moving and rolling on momentum alone for as long as possible. It is a more extreme technique and carries real risks — it can affect braking performance and power steering response.

If you do attempt it, the safest approach is to dip the clutch, switch off the engine but leave the ignition on, and keep the car in gear. This allows you to restart quickly by releasing the clutch, and ensures your trip computer continues recording your speed and mileage correctly.

We do not recommend this technique for most drivers.

Draft-Assisted FAS (D-FAS)

The same as FAS, but performed while drafting the vehicle in front to reduce aerodynamic drag. This is an even more hazardous technique — reduced braking performance combined with a greatly reduced following distance is a very bad combination.

Please do not attempt D-FAS.

Read more in our dedicated coasting techniques guide.

Drafting

Drafting — tucking in behind another vehicle to benefit from the slipstream they create — has been used in motorsport, cycling and speed skating for decades. The principle is simple: the vehicle in front punches a hole through the air, and you benefit from the reduced resistance in their wake.

It does work. The MythBusters famously tested it and confirmed that meaningful fuel savings are possible.

However, the extreme tailgating that some hypermilers use to maximise the effect is genuinely dangerous and has brought the hypermiling community a lot of negative attention. If you want to benefit from drafting, do it safely — follow the Highway Code’s two-second rule: pick a fixed marker, and ensure you pass it at least two seconds after the car in front. In poor weather or heavy traffic, increase that gap further.

Done properly, it’s a legitimate and safe way to pick up a few extra MPG. Done badly, it’s a serious accident risk.

Check out the MythBusters drafting episode on our Hypermiling Videos page.

Ridge Riding

Ridge riding is a relatively recent addition to hypermiling terminology, and it’s primarily a safety technique. By positioning your car slightly out of the worn tyre tracks (“ridges”) left by other vehicles, you make yourself more visible to surrounding road users. It has been most widely adopted by hypermilers in the United States, but the principle applies anywhere.