Japan's `Mileage Maniacs' Hack Hybrids, Beat Toyota Engineers

> Japan's `Mileage Maniacs' Hack Hybrids, Beat Toyota Engineers
> 2007-04-04 17:17 (New York)
>
>
> By Terje Langeland
> April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. says its Prius
> gasoline-electric hybrid car gets about 55 miles to the gallon,
> making it one of the most fuel-efficient cars on the road.
> That's not good enough for Takashi Toya.
> Toya, a 56-year-old manager for a tofu maker in central
> Japan, puts special tires on his Prius, tapes plastic and
> cardboard over the engine and blocks the grill with foam rubber.
> He drives without shoes and hacks into his car's computer -- all
> in the pursuit of maximum distance with minimum gasoline.
> Toya is one of about 100 nenpimania, Japanese for ``mileage
> maniacs,'' or hybrid owners who compete against each other to
> squeeze as much as 115 miles per gallon out of their cars. In a
> country where gasoline costs more than $4 a gallon, at least $1
> more than the U.S. price, enthusiasts tweak their cars and hone
> driving techniques to cut fuel bills and gain bragging rights.
> ``My wife thinks I've joined some strange secret society,''
> Toya said in January at a nenpimania gathering in Nagoya in
> central Japan.
> Mileage maniacs aren't alone in pushing the limits of
> hybrid vehicles. As U.S. automakers General Motors Corp. and
> Ford Motor Co. race to introduce their own models, first rolled
> out by Japanese companies in 1997, engineers at Toyota and Honda
> Motor Co. are trying to boost hybrid performance to maintain
> their advantage.
> ``With higher oil prices and tightening environmental
> regulations, people will focus more on hybrid technology,'' said
> Koji Endo, an auto analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston in
> Tokyo.
>
> Hybrid Power
>
> Hybrids combine a conventional gasoline engine with an
> electric motor. The motor powers the vehicle at low speeds, and
> the gasoline engine kicks in as the car accelerates. The motor
> uses the motion of the wheels to recharge the batteries.
> Toya said he switched to a hybrid after years of driving
> sports cars, trading muscle ``for the fun of maximum mileage.''
> Nicknamed ``The Shogun,'' Toya said he drove 1,000 miles (1,600
> kilometers) on a single 13-gallon (49-liter) tank 17 times last
> year, an average of 79 mpg. At the advertised efficiency rate, a
> driver would get 715 miles per tank.
> Toya isn't the best, though. A woman from Akita prefecture,
> nicknamed ``Teddy-Girl,'' is cited on mileage maniac Web sites
> as getting almost 116 mpg. That's enough to drive from New York
> to Wichita, Kansas -- 1,386 miles -- without refilling.
> By comparison, a 2007 two-wheel drive Ford F-150 pickup
> running at peak efficiency burns through five times as much
> gasoline over the same distance.
>
> Mileage Varies
>
> While the nenpimania may take things to extremes, there is
> a long history of car owners tinkering with their machines to
> improve gas mileage.
> ``The Gas Mileage Bible'' (Infinity Publishing, 2006)
> promises to help drivers improve fuel efficiency by more than 30
> percent. It is the latest in a line of books stretching back to
> at least 1942, when an American author named Lee Richter
> published a 64-page pamphlet on increasing tire and gas mileage
> to help save resources for the U.S. war effort.
> Since the 1997 release of the Prius, the first mass-market
> hybrid, owners in Japan and elsewhere have fiddled with their
> cars to raise mileage and shared tips, including the best
> driving techniques, over the Internet. The mileage maniacs
> strive to perfect what they call the ``pulse and glide'' driving
> method.
> On a chilly Saturday afternoon in Aichi prefecture, a short
> drive from Toyota's world headquarters in Toyota City, Toya
> removes his right shoe to demonstrate. Pulsing and gliding
> demands sensitivity when pushing or releasing the accelerator,
> so only his big toe touches the pedal.
>
> Pulse and Glide
>
> Toya accelerates, or pulses, to 29 mph, then glides down to
> 25 mph before pulsing again. The car uses no fuel when gliding.
> While driving, Toya monitors three pocket-sized electronic
> gadgets designed by Yoshiyuki Mimura, a fellow hybrid
> enthusiast. The dashboard devices use the car's computer to
> display engine rotation speed, coolant temperature, accelerator
> position, brake pressure and battery charge.
> Japan imports almost all its crude oil, spending $98
> billion last year. Toyota estimates that rising demand for fuel-
> efficient cars will help boost worldwide sales of its hybrid
> models to 430,000 this year, from 321,500 last year.
> ``We listen to our customers' opinions and accept them as
> materials for product development,'' Toyota spokeswoman Shiori
> Hashimoto said in response to questions about the mileage
> maniacs.
> Toyota and other Japanese automakers are focusing on
> improving hybrid batteries and making the vehicles cheaper, Endo
> said. The cars now cost about 600,000 yen ($5,100) more than the
> equivalent conventional vehicles.
> Toyota plans to introduce a new Prius by 2009 that will be
> smaller and cheaper, Endo said. The mileage maniacs say they
> look forward to the challenge of improving its fuel efficiency.
> ``The vehicle will be high-tech,'' enthusiast Mimura said.
> ``I think it'll be more difficult to hack.''
>
> --With reporting by Kae Inoue in Tokyo. Editor: Okeson