Eat that, hybrids!

Oct 5, 2010
by Tom Cassady

With an AA van behind them carrying two witnesses and tools for when the inevitable tank-ran-dry moment occurred, a crew from UK's The Sunday Times rolled into the record books last week when they piloted a Passat BlueMotion for 1527 miles on one tank of fuel. The team set out from Kent, in South East England, and drove to the South of France and back. While they didn't actually make it all the way back to Kent, they made it just outside of Calais, where the Eurostar chunnel train could've taken them back into England, making the trip nearly complete.

Traveling 1526.63 miles on 20.4 U.S. gallons of fuel works out to just under 75 mpg. This was all achieved in a standard production Passat BlueMotion, which, like the Golfs and Polos that wear the same badge, features reworked body panels, stop/start technology, a lower ride height, and low rolling resistance tires to help the car eek every last bit of mileage out of each gallon. The three-day trip included stretches both on motorways and through towns, averaging a speed of 45 mph, and is the equivalent of driving from New York to Los Angeles while only needing to stop for fuel once.

Full press release below:

A Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion has set a new Guinness World Record for the longest distance travelled by a standard production passenger car on a single tank of fuel.

The attempt, carried out by a team from The Sunday Times, involved driving from Maidstone in Kent to the South of France and back. The Passat BlueMotion finally ran out of fuel close to Calais after completing a distance of 1,526.63 miles.

The route mainly followed French autoroutes, but included some town driving, resulting in an average speed of just over 45 mph.

Gavin Conway, for The Sunday Times, drove the Passat BlueMotion during the three-day record-breaking trip, accompanied by a navigator and video crew. Two AA patrolmen followed the entire attempt in their van to witness the journey independently for the Guinness World Records organisation, which accredited the record.

Powered by a Volkswagen 1.6-litre common rail TDI engine developing 105 PS, the Passat BlueMotion used for the record attempt was a standard production model. In common with the Polo and Golf BlueMotion models, the Passat is fitted with aerodynamic modifications to the bodywork, a lower ride height, Stop/Start, programmed battery charging, longer gearing and low rolling resistance tyres. The result is a vehicle that is completely conventional to drive, service and maintain yet among the most efficient vehicles on the road today.

The Passat BlueMotion?s fuel tank was drained before the record breaking journey and filled with 77.25 litres of standard forecourt diesel, resulting in an overall fuel consumption of 89.83 miles per gallon. This substantially exceeds the Passat BlueMotion?s official combined figure of 64.2 mpg. The resulting fuel cost for the journey works out at just 6.17p per mile travelled.

In setting the record the Passat BlueMotion travelled a distance equivalent to driving from London to Malaga, without needing to refuel or from New York to Los Angeles with a single stop for diesel.

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

In setting the record the Passat BlueMotion travelled a distance equivalent to driving from London to Malaga, without needing to refuel or from New York to Los Angeles with a single stop for diesel.

The article reflects Obvious math failure ........ from NY to LA is almost 2800 miles....... and from Malaga to London is 1350 miles........ maybe a writer but absolutely not a true driver who understands distance!!

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

These kind of tests have little merit. First of all,the goal was to achieve the highest POSSIBLE mpg by using special driving techniques,low rolling resistance by over inflating the tires, minimum weight,etc. I do not consider this a real world test. I once tried to make a game out the mpg that I could get out of a 2007 chevy malibu.....by just altering my driving style on a 438 mile round trip (at max legal speeds) I averaged 45mpg or 9.7 gallons. If I had kept the speeds at 45 (like in the mentioned test) I probably would have done even better. The problem is that I don't normally drive this way. Normal mpg for this trip is 31mpg but this proves how much one can alter his mpg figures.

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

I go along with your comments, BUT, I believe the issue here maybe the motor, a TDi. (Turbo Diesel Injection)

We have 2 of them.
Wife's AWD 2L TDi does 32mpg around town. We don't even care what it does on a trip.
(it is really spacious, plus 7 seats).

My 3L TDi Sports Truck does 25mpg around town.

My annual fuel bill is way way down.

And both vehicles are faster than their equivalent petrol models.
I won't say I will never own another petrol engine, but turbo diesel injection has it all over petrol.

Cheers
Phillip

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

Bob_VT said:

In setting the record the Passat BlueMotion travelled a distance equivalent to driving from London to Malaga, without needing to refuel or from New York to Los Angeles with a single stop for diesel.

The article reflects Obvious math failure ........ from NY to LA is almost 2800 miles....... and from Malaga to London is 1350 miles........ maybe a writer but absolutely not a true driver who understands distance!!

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course that one fuel stop in the middle would put you pretty close would it not?

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

I love this kind of data and info. They do a decent job of explaining the parameters, and they even try and straighten out Imperial Gallon to US Gallon although it isn't perfectly clear. Dr. Rudolph Diesel invented this engine in 1893. It is still the most efficient, commercially viable, engine sub 10,000 bhp and there are examples to 100,000 bhp that stretch that definition a lot.

"Hybrid" as used in this context is a drivetrain, not an engine, and only improves overall vehicle efficiency whether it is diesel, gasoline, or alternatives to either . . .

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

Here in Nevada there are a lot of hiway miles between towns, so hiway mileage is important. We see a lot of diesels and hybrids, but strangely, full electric cars are illegal. the statutes state that ALL motor vehicles must have a muffler. By their very nature electric cars cannot be fitted with a muffler.

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

Not so fast(pun intended).

"The record for the most miles achieved out of a single tank of gas, with 2,254 miles (3,627 km) from the 13.7 US gallons (52 l; 11.4 imp gal) tank of a 2006 Honda Insight, represents an average of 164.53 miles per US gallon (1.4296 L/100 km; 197.59 mpg-imp) for the entire distance.[8]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermiling

Also, Hybrids have more juice when needed. The 2010 Prius has 134HP total, between the engine and 2 electric motors.

I have an 06' Highlander Hybrid, with the 215HP V6. I'd drag race a lot of non hybrids, for "pink slips" (if I had mine )

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

But you can put a hybrid driveline behind a diesel . . .

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

QC said:

But you can put a hybrid driveline behind a diesel . . .

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And if they did the mileage would probably go up by 50% over gasoline models.... That's why they won't do it.

I remember the old Mercedes DL models (diesel) got unheard of fuel mileage way back when. I bet if you converted one of them by adding wheel motor/gen setups and had a steady foot, you would get over 100mpg and be sitting in the lap of luxury

BUT doing such, or mass producing a water car ( hydrogen with an on-board converter) would crash our economy. As a result the technology and knowledge we have is not used. The patent office has a section of prohibited inventions because they would jeopardize our economy.

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

You sir are a conspiracy theorist . . . they don't do it because of cost and demand and the resulting sales aren't there to offset that cost The automotive world lives on that, not some fuel use conspiracy.

Hybrid drives will add 7% efficiency to a highway vehicle and around 20 - 30% for a stop and go vehicle. There is just no way to achieve a 50% efficiency improvement unless you were talking a carbed 2 stroke gasoline engine to a common rail electronic diesel combined with a hybrid drivetrain of some type (electric or hydraulic). No way would an old mechanical diesel combined with anything but a steep hill achieve anywhere near 100 MPG. Just sayin'

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

and whats funny is my dad bought a chevy sprint back about 1985 brand new, carbed with a 3 cyl suzuki engine.
best it ever got was 65MPG driving between Kitty Hawk NC and the Boeing plant in tacoma WA.
worst it got, same trip only now it had 290K miles on it, 53 MPG.
and that was a 1985 low tech with a carb.
however it would hold my dad,6'3 and about 250lbs,my uncle, about 6'5 and 190,me about 6,1 and 165( was still active duty) my wife 5'0 and about 110 lbs and my seabag and some luggage and still got over 55 MPG from norfolk airport back to kitty hawk.
man, leave was great.
had a 5 speed manual and AC, dad drove that car coast to coast more than 10 times that I can count.
he also made few trips between Boeing in WA and Boeing in PA.
so why cant they do it again?
with that same engine a 6 speed box and EFI should easily nail 70MPG.

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

One reason is performance expectations . . . and they do have that again along with more passenger room, safer and much quicker acceleration. Did you read the article?

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

the sprint was very peppy, unless you were already doing 60 MPH and wanted to accelerate.
then it took a bit to hit 70.
however off the line it would light up them 12" tires and barkem in 2nd.
out of the 290K dad drove it, he sold it to a kid in 2002 or so, we did do a couple brake jobs,replaced the carb once due to the shft bushings wore out at about 200K, two clutchs and the transmission input bearings and a cam cover gasket.
a few timing belts and thats about it other than routine maint.
I think he paid about 8k for it new.
for a family of 10 its not practicle, for the average commuter sitting by themselves its very practicle.

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

Eh, miles schmiles. I get 21mpg mixed, 25-ish hwy @ 80mph with the Bimmer's 300hp V8. Didn't buy it for the mileage, bought it for the miles of smiles behind the wheel.

I also have a factory 1980 Bradley GT2 Electric. Drive it every once in a while, but its hard to pry me from the Bimmer's comfort seat.

Great driving experience is worth more than high mpg in my book.

The other thing to look at is --- how much is your time worth? Avg 45mph for a 1500+mile trip? Screw that, I'll avg 90 and spend my time more constructively. Make that trip in half the time, gives me the other half to hit the lake!!

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

QC said:

You sir are a conspiracy theorist . . .

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LOL, NO, actually I just love to fish and am just a jerk sometimes...

I just wanted to take the temperature and see what everyone else thought. I am in the green/alternative energy business an deal with statements like I made all the time

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

HVAC Cruiser said:

I am in the green/alternative energy business

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So am I, want to elaborate?

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

QC said:

So am I, want to elaborate?

Click to expand...

Certainly ,
People come to me all the time thinking that you can get 1,000,000,000,000 btuh from solar energy and that the systems should and will pay for themselves in 3 days

I'm an engineer of high efficiency/Solar heating and air conditioning systems and write the software for their integration and control. a Lot of what I do is BMS ( Building Management Systems).

Many people in the industry don't realize that the sun and earths energy is dynamic, That's my edge As it is I DO get 20-25% more energy out of the sun through the use of controlling flow rates and maintaining a specific delta. BUT I still have customers calling and complaining that their February gas heating/hot water bill was $135 for a 14,000 sf multiple dwelling


EDIT If you want to see some of my systems click on the live link at www.hvaclive.net

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

now let's see them do this in a boat

Re: Eat that, hybrids!

HVAC Cruiser said:

a Lot of what I do is BMS ( Building Management Systems).

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Cool, some things in common. A lot of what I do is BS . . .

Actually I am in the Truck Engine biz. We take perfectly good diesel engines and screw them up so they'll run on natural gas . . .