So How Exactly Does Highway Driving Use Less Gas Than City Driving

Recent cars annex the fuel efficiency listed in colossal, bold letters--one for municipality fuel efficiency, and one for highway efficiency. The highway figure is normally higher than the conurbation symbol, which wealth that the van can impel bounteous miles per gallon of Gauze, or MPG, on the highway. This is not to answer that highway driving uses less Gauze during a firm bigness of time--a minute of highway driving Testament burn deeper fuel than a minute of municipality driving--but that for the alike extent of Gauze, driving on a highway Testament entertain you farther down the means. (During that minute, you Testament corner travelled a higher quality distance on the highway.)


The paragon celerity to maximize MPG for most cars falls within a gamut between 50 and 65 mph.Another important reason that highway driving is more efficient than city driving is that it requires less waste of momentum in the form of braking. Every time a driver stops, he must burn extra gas to accelerate back to the speed he was driving before he stopped. Another advantage to highway driving is that gas can be conserved when going downhill by coasting, whereas in the city, coasting will usually be interrupted by turns, stop signs or stoplights. Drafting behind other vehicles can also increase highway fuel efficiency. In general, the lighter a car and the larger the engine, the higher the speed it will take to arrive peak efficiency. Since light cars usually have smaller engines, they often peak out around the same speed as large cars with larger engines. Sports cars with large engines will tend to see peak efficiency at higher speeds.


When engines rev up and grasp higher gears, the efficiency of their output increases until they are working so callous that a marginal enlargement in output requires a bulky bigness of additional fuel. By reason of wind resistance and friction also increase at higher speeds, fuel efficiency drops off fast once the engine reaches its peak efficiency level. The peak level will vary for each car depending on the engine, the weight of the car, the aerodynamics and many other factors. At low speeds wind resistance is low, and in the city cars are constantly turning, so it is difficult to follow behind one car for long periods of time. On the freeway, just driving behind a large vehicle at a safe distance can lower wind resistance slightly and improve fuel efficiency over the course of a long trip.