All Entries Tagged With: "gm trucks"

Active Aerodynamics and Pickup Truck Fuel Economy

Aerodynamics plays more of a role in automobile fuel efficiency than many people realize. In fact, when looking at vehicles as large as trucks even small tweaks to a body shape’s aero profile can pay dividends in terms of reducing gas consumption at highway speeds.

What Is Active Aero?

In the pursuit of better fuel economy, many automakers are turning to the field of active aerodynamics. Performance enthusiasts are most likely familiar with active aero applications in the racing and high-end sports car world, where spoilers deploy at certain speeds to help achieve greater straight-line stability, or air brakes pop up in order to haul racers down from triple digit speeds as quickly as possible. When it comes to fuel economy, active aerodynamics plays a more subtle, but no less important role in changing the flow of air around an automobile in order to maximize its slipperiness and reduce the amount of energy needed to keep it moving forward at a specific speed.