>>I know a few people that have made some hacks to it. After some tinkering & tweaking they were able to get a pretty noticeable difference (one guy was getting around 62mpg) - buy yep it kills the lifespan of the batteries.
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>Why do you think some guy with a pc can do better than the R&D division of some big car manufacturer ??

It's not that it's "better" - just different. Good example is the hacked computer chips you can put in cars to increase horsepower. Obviously the car manufacturer could of done the same thing but did not. They're going to try to balance power and performance with reliability, whereas the individual might be more interested in horsepower than longevity and willing to make the trade-off.