Diesel doesn’t always have to be a dirty word. A former Airbus pilot, and independent hypermile expert, Felix Egolf, has shown the potential of the Opel Insignia’s frugality by traveling 2,111 kilometers on a single tank of fuel. That is 1,312 miles for those of us on the imperial scale.
Egolf managed this with Opel’s latest “whisper diesel” engine, displacing 1.6-liters, making 136 hp and 236 lb-ft of torque.
During his trip from the Alps to the North Sea and back, he only needed 3.46 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers, or less than one gallon of fuel for 62 miles traveled.
“I have wanted to crack the 2,000-kilometer barrier for some time now but I couldn’t find the car to do it. The excellent aerodynamics of the Opel Insignia (cd value of 0.26 plus small frontal area) combined with the Eco Contact 5 low-rolling resistance tires contributed to this outstanding result. This hypermiling tour with the Opel Insignia also shows that anybody who has an anticipatory driving style can easily equal or better the official consumption figures. Anybody can be a hypermiler,” said Egolf.
Egolf made a stop in Rüsselsheim, home to Opel, where he spoke with Vice President GM Global Propulsion Systems – Europe, Christian Müller, and discussed his remarkable journey.
“The fuel gauge in the Insignia still showed that the tank was almost full when Felix Egolf arrived in Rüsselsheim. He managed to complete the first 429 kilometers with an average consumption of only 3.2 liters. It is great that he managed to crack the 2,000-kilometer mark,” said Müller.
Impressive is merely one word to describe what has been accomplished here.
Comments
Very impressive!
This is where I feel fuel economy push falls down. It always comes down to how you drive it, Top Gear proved the same thing when Clarkson ran the Jag XJ in an economy race and won.
I can routinely get between 7.5-7.8L/100KM in my 2010 impala (3.5L) running highway speeds, and higher yet on secondary roads.
I can’t wait to see the 1.6-liters, making 136 hp and 236 lb-ft of torque available as an option in cars like the Chevy Cruze, the Chevy Malibu and the Buick Encore as 236 lb-ft of torque is a lot of grunt and will provide better mileage than the gas powered engines being used.