Got a lead foot? Try 'Kiwi' device to save gas

Summer road trips are a bit less fun with gas over $4 a gallon and no peak in sight. But there are a couple gadgets to help make fuel go farther.

Named after the green fruit, the PLX Kiwi from PLX Devices is a small device (a little more than 2 inches by 3 inches) that attaches to your dashboard or windshield.

The PLX Kiwi in-car display gives you fuel-efficient driving feedback.

(Credit: PLX Devices)

By plugging into a vehicle's diagnostic port, it can display miles per gallon as well as trip information and even the cause of engine problems.

But really it's designed to make your driving habits more energy-efficient.

Accelerating hard and jamming on the brakes to slow consumes more gas than a smoother, steadier way of driving.

The PLX Kiwi shows off feedback on how you're doing in that regard and gives you a "kiwi score." It's also programmed with 20 increasingly difficult challenges to optimize your score.

Making changes to driving patterns can lower gas consumption by 20 percent with gas at $4 a gallon, according to the company. That savings can go up to 33 percent if your driving is mostly on highways.

Depending on the type of car you drive, the savings can be several hundred dollars a year, between $560 and $800, according to the company. You can get a read-out of dollars saved on a given trip and a cumulative total.

For the eco-conscious driver, these foot pedal changes can add up: a sedan driver can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 16,000 pounds. That's the equivalent of changing out 500 incandescent light bulbs for more efficient compact fluorescents.

The PLX Kiwi plugs into a car's diagnostic port to give a read-out of current and historical info.

(Credit: PLX Devices)

Another in-car display designed for fuel efficiency is the ScanGuage II, which doesn't have the same slick LED display as the PLX Kiwi or the scoring system.

The PLX Kiwi will be available later this month and costs $299, according to a company representative, while the ScanGuage costs $169.

Perhaps we'll all be learning green driving techniques. The U.K. government earlier this week said that all drivers will need to pass "green-driving tests" in September, according to a report on Wednesday in Green Car Advisor.

[k2dave]

I don't see how the thing can improve highway mpg 33%. On a 30 mpg car that equates to 40mpg, sorry that doesn't pass the sniff test (if it smells like a ...). I can see increased city millage more then highway by coasting a lot more and earlier to stops, but these claims are unbelievable. A lot of cars already show mpg and that doesn't seem to help all that much increase mpg. In my own experience adding perhaps 3 mpg is more reasonable on 30mpg, or a 10% gain on the high end.

[henebry]

Simple. It doesn't improve a 30 mpg car to 40 mpg. It improves a car to 30 mpg that's capable of getting that sort of mileage, but actually getting 22 mpg due to bad driving habits.

And, yes, I imagine that the savings they list are at the upper end, and assume that the driver in question has very bad driving habits indeed.

[Galaxy5]

"Accelerating hard and jamming on the breaks to slow".....embarrassing misuse of homonyms is only one reason why spell-checkers are contributing to bad writing all over the web.

[mlamonica]

thanks for spotting. fixed the typo.

[Kev Orng]

Nice, can it be set to display in kilometres per hour?

[Kev Orng]

Sorry, i meant litres per kilometre

[MrOBrian]

Doesn't anyone proof these articles before they are posted?
"Summer road trips are bit less fun"

And then my favorite: "Making changes to driving patterns can lower gas consumption by 20 percent with gas at $4 a gallon" So if gas were only $3 per gallon, making changes to driving patterns would only lower gas consumption by 15%?

"...all drivers will need to pass a "green-driving tests"" Ummm, a tests?

Some people might think I'm being too picky, but come on, this isn't a blog, this is a news article, check your grammar.


Oh, and "That savings can go up to 33 percent if your driving is mostly on highways." Well, yeah, if you switch from all the necessary in-town driving to strictly highway driving (assuming no traffic), then sure, you can increase your MPG by quite a bit. But if that sentence was meant to mean that this device will increase your highway mileage by up to 33 percent then I call BS.

[ivallt]

The difference with the PLX Kiwi is that it is a REAL TIME engine monitoring system. PLX Devices has been making engine tuning products for a while now. All of those cheap monitors built into existing cars work on averages more and are not intereactive live the kiwi is.
Needfultoyz

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