Ford Committed to Improving Fuel Efficiency of Vehicles and Consumers

Ford Committed to Improving Fuel Efficiency of Vehicles and Consumers

Right, Todd Cook, eco-driver extraordinaire.

By Scott Doggett, Contributor

I'm a non-mechanical hypermiler. I do everything short of modifying my car to eek out as many miles from a tank of gasoline as is humanly possible.

So when Ford Motor Co. asked me if I'd like to attend an eco-driving class they were hosting in Phoenix yesterday to learn how I could become a more fuel-efficient driver, I quickly agreed.

It's them who would learn from me, I thought. The so-called class is just more green-washing event put on by an automaker that was slow to get with the high-MPG program. So I thought.

And I was dead wrong. It was I who had much to learn about hypermiling -- or as Ford prefers, eco-driving.

There were maybe a dozen journalists in the class and nearly as many people there from Ford. We learned that during the preceding days, Ford had posted an ad on craigslist inviting Phoenix-area residents to evaluate a few vehicles and earn $125 for their trouble.

A diverse group of 48 people participated, only Ford wasn't primarily interested in what the 48 thought of the vehicles. Rather, Ford wanted to see whether or not they could be taught to drive very fuel efficiently in a short period of time.

The participants adhered to an 11.6-mile route, seven miles on 25- and 35-mile-an-hour streets through residential and commercial neighborhoods and 4.6 miles on a fast stretch of Interstate 10. They drove four vehicles: a 2008 Ford Fusion, a 2009 Ford Flex, a 2008 F-150, and a 2009 Lincoln MKS AWD.

Seated beside each participant was a Ford eco-driving trainer, only the participants didn't know that initially. Rather, they were led to believe that the trainers were researchers tasked with recording the participants' likes and dislikes regarding the four vehicles.

But every time a participant completed the route, his or her completion time and fuel economy were carefully logged. Beginning with the second trip along the same route, the trainers began teaching the motorists how to use less fuel while covering the same ground.

Before telling the journalists how the group fared, each of us was assigned a trainer and, using the same vehicles the craigslist respondents had driven, we covered the same ground, twice.

My Turn

With Ford eco-driving trainer Todd Cook seated beside me in the F-150 pickup, I silently vowed to wow him with my hypermiling skills. I kept the truck at or below posted speed limits, avoided jack-rabbit starts like the plague, cruised to stoplights, avoided braking whenever possible.

The F-150 I drove was EPA rated for 13 miles per gallon in the city, 17 on the highway and 14 combined. Most people believe EPA mileage estimates can only be achieved under optimum conditions. Most people don't expect their fuel economy to be as good as the EPA suggests.

But I completed that first run in 24 minutes and 39 seconds and -- more importantly -- I did it getting a combined 16.6 mpg. That's 2½ miles per gallon better than the EPA's combined fuel-economy estimate for the truck.

As I pulled out of a parking lot at the start of the second trip, Cook said, "You've got happy feet." Although I was hardly gunning the throttle, he'd noticed that I was pushing down, then letting up, pushing down, letting up. Not dramatically, but he could feel it.

Instead of doing that, my feet should be like the smoothest cruise control, he said. They should be gradually accelerating and gradually decelerating when I'm trying to maintain a certain speed on roads that aren't perfectly flat or straight as an arrow.

No Omelet

Treat the throttle as if there's an egg behind it that you don't want to break, he said. Give it gas, but gently, gently. When we spied a traffic light that wasn't likely to be green for us at our current rate of speed, he instructed me to take my foot off the throttle altogether. No use putting the pedal to the metal to get to a red light.

And when we reached a light that, judging from crosswalk signals, was likely to remain red a while, he instructed me to turn the ignition key far enough that the engine died but the radio and other electronic devices stayed on.

He drew my attention to a cross-walk box. When it got down to 2 seconds before I would receive a green light, he told me to turn the key and start the engine. That practice is less wasteful gas-wise than idling for 30 or more seconds, he said.

Cook showed me how to keep the engine under 2,000 rpm all the time, and he taught me to give gas near the end of a downhill stretch and allow the truck's momentum to carry the vehicle at least part way up the next hill before accelerating. Previously, I had been cruising all the way down hills and applying gas at the bottom of the next hill. No good, he said. I didn't know.

Short of it is that my combined mileage rose from 16.6 mpg on the first trip to 17.4 mpg on the second. That's a 5-percent improvement. And instead of going slower, I actually made the second trip in 50 fewer seconds than the first. Had I made a third trip on that course I have no doubt I could have squeezed another mile per gallon out of the fuel I used for even greater savings.

We Rule

My results were exceptional. Most of the journalists achieved mileage improvements in excess of 20 percent because they were so wasteful on their initial run. One of the other reporters saw his fuel economy improve 24 percent between the first trip and the second.

Curt Magleby, Ford's director of U.S. state and local government relations, told us that the term "eco-driving" was actually coined more than a decade ago by Ford of Germany employees who, with members of the German Road Safety Council, looked for ways the consumer could improve his or her mileage.

As a result of the collaboration, fleet drivers and other groups in Germany intent on reducing their fuel costs can now take government-certified courses that enable them to do just that through behavioral changes such as the ones Cook taught me.

Magleby (pictured, with moustache) said several of the German master trainers traveled to Michigan a few months ago and taught their fuel-saving techniques to Cook and the other trainers who just taught us journalists what they'd learned.

Ford is currently speaking with fleet owners in the U.S. about the benefits of eco-driving, Magleby said, adding that he hopes eco-driving will be incorporated into driving-school programs across the nation.

"We (at Ford) are committed to improving the fuel economy of our vehicles," he said. "We are also committed to looking for alternative fuels, for renewable fuels."

But there are a lot of things consumers can be doing right now that would save them money at the pump and help free America of it dependence on foreign oil, he said. All that's needed is replacing some bad driving habits with some good ones.

Amen to that.

Scott Doggett:  is an AutoObserver.com Associate Editor.