Under the great development of Chinese economy, the recent number of cars being sold and on road has increased year after year in China. Meanwhile, there are huge issues concerning the en- vironmental quality, the energy supply, and noise levels. To address the issues, this paper intro- duces a technology utilizing flat-plate model of the automobile tail-pipe energy harvesting (ATEH), which recovers energy from the automobile pipe exhaust gas. This technology can reduce a car's gasoline consumption. The ATEH is designed, and is composed of two hot boxes and three cold boxes. The exhaust gas flows through the hot boxes, while the cooling water flows through the cold boxes. Thermoelectric units are assembled between one hot box and one cold box. To test its roadside performance, the ATEH was integrated with a pickup truck. The installed unit is located between the three-way catalyst and the muffler. Based on the automobile roadside test, maximum output power of the ETEG was 300 W per unit. To some extent, the ATEH can meet the normal electricity demand of a car.