Drive $mart Wisconsin, reflecting the new expanded program of what originally was the Milwaukee Hybrid Group, moved its April 2013 bi-monthly meeting to the Greenfield Public Library on Saturday the 6th, after seven years in Oak Creek. Featured speaker Wayne Gerdes, founder of CleanMPG and inventor of the term "hypermiling," was setting new mileage records driving over the mountains from Nevada to California, which put him out of commuting distance to get to Wisconsin in time.
This focused undivided attention on the presentation by Eric Powers from the Madison Hybrid Group, on his hybrid battery and repair service -- offering tips to drivers on how to save money while keeping electric and hybrid vehicles running at top performance.
But perhaps the biggest single show-stopper was the appearance of Frank Irger in his new Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, a fully-equipped luxury vehicle rated at 45 mpg city/highway combined. Irger announced he has been getting an overal 49 mpg from his Lincoln, which has a combined output of 188 horsepower from the gasoline engine and electric motor, but is listed at the same price as the non-hybrid model.
"Short trips, they kill you" said Irger, with mileage as low as 32 mpg. "Do the longest drive first, then work back," because hybrids give their best performance after fully warming up. Irger also advised hybrid drivers, "Don't coast, step on the brake, so the batteries charge." Coasting to a stop can save on gas in conventional internal combustion vehicles, which do not have regenerative braking systems to capture the motion as electric current.
Powers bluntly told the meeting that battery packs on hybrid and electric cars will have to be replaced someday, but there are many ways to maintain top performance, including "balancing" the battery pack by replacing individual components when the entire pack is not deficient. "I want to keep as many of these cars on the road as I can."
Hybrid group co-founder Bradless Fons explained that while hybrids, driven right, do deliver good mileage, "the average vehicle on the road is 11 years old. People think nothing can be done" to improve mileage or cut fuel costs, without the money to buy a new hyrid or electric. "If you're doing what we train you to do, you'll save $1.25 a gallon."
Fons's son Justin recounted that hybrid owners often get frustrated with the real mileage improvement they get back for their investment. He recalled the owner of a Honda Civic hybrid, in suburban Waukesha, who was getting 35 miles per gallon, and was about to trade in the car. "I drove his regular commute for him" Justin said, "and got 72 mpg. Next time he drove the way I showed him and got 60 mpg. He was like a kid in a candy store."
People came to the meeting from all over southeastern Wisconsin, including Lake Geneva, Jackson, Mequon, Thiensville, Burlington, Oconomowoc, and Sauk City, from deep in the heart of Milwaukee, and from Chicago, other parts of Illinois, and one from Minneapolis, who left home at 3:00 am to get the the meeting. Two owned the new all-electric Nissan Leaf.
Founding member Debbie Anders continues to get 40 mpg on her Ford Escape Hybrid, a small SUV model, while Fons, whose Insight has the license plate "72 MPG" actually has a lifetime average of 85 miles per gallon, and has done 95 mpg at night when no other traffic in his way.
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