• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.34-39
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• 2013

The gear shifting timing of a manual transmission vehicle is influencing fuel economy. This paper focuses on an gear shifting indicator of an city bus with manual transmission, which can improve fuel economy. The shift indicator is supposed to collect the vehicle data during driving, calculate and compare fuel economy with and without gear shifting, and indicate the proper gear shifting timing. The H/W and S/W of the shift indicator are developed and tested on city bus in this research. The experiments are carried out on real road by 3 different drivers and the results show the improvement of fuel economy from 6.0% to 21.4%. The average engine torque and speed are reduced due to early gear shifting and the usage of highest gear is increased. The results of chassis test are also performed and show 7.5% improvement of fuel economy.