Hypermilers can take a hyperbow — their activity has been named the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2008.
Defined by the august yet distinctly with-it Oxfordians as
to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one's car and one's driving techniques. Rather than aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallonthe practice has been gaining traction since 2004, when hypermiler Wayne Gerdes coined the phrase on his website, cleanmpg.com.
Some basic hypermiling techniques involve jettisoning extra weight from the car's trunk or roof; keeping tires very inflated; using cruise control and refraining from sharp accelerations and decelerations.
Hypermilers may sacrifice time (keeping under the speed limit), comfort (no air conditioning), and occasionally common sense (turning off the engine at red lights instead of idling) in their pursuit of eking out every last centimeter from every liter of gasoline. But the planet will doubtless thank them for for it. And for now, they've been given the green light by the Oxford folk; drivers take note and try to keep up.
Note: In more-mellow California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been known to call this practice EcoDriving.
Last updated: November 24, 2008.
