Fuel-efficient driving tips can save you hundred of euros in fuel each year. In addition to this, it can help to improve road safety and prevent wear on your vehicle.
These 10 ECO- driving techniques and you can lower your vehicles fuels consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 25%.
- Accelerate gently: The harder you accelerate the more fuel you use. You can use less fuel by easing onto the accelerator pedal gently. To be as fuel-efficient as possible, take 5 seconds to accelerate your vehicle up to 20 kilometers per hour from a stop. Imagine an open cup of coffee on the dashboard. Don’t spill it!
- Maintain a steady speed: When your speed dips and bursts, you use more fuel, and spend more money, than you need to. Tests have shown that varying your speed up and down between 75 and 85 km per hour every 18 seconds can increase your fuel use by 20%.
- Anticipate traffic: Look ahead while you’re driving to see what is coming up. And keep a comfortable distance between your vehicle and the one in front of you. By looking closely at what pedestrians and other cars are doing, and imagining what they’ll do next, you can keep your speed as steady as possible and use less fuel. It’s also safer to drive this way.
- Avoid high speeds: Keep to the speed limit and save on fuel! Most cars, vans, and SUVs are most fuel-efficient when they’re travelling between 50 and 80 km per hour. Above this speed zone, vehicles use increasingly more fuel the faster they go. For example, Speed; slowing from 120kph to 100kph can save 25% or more in fuel use, but always obey speed limits and reduce your speed to the minimum.
- Coast to decelerate: Every time you use your brakes, you waste your forward momentum. By looking ahead at how traffic is behaving, you can often see well in advance when it’s time to slow down. You will conserve fuel and save money by taking your foot off the accelerator and coasting to slow down instead of using your brakes.
- Avoid idling your vehicle: Turn off your engine when you’re stopped for more than 60 seconds, except when in traffic. The average vehicle with a 2-litre engine wastes 200 millilitres of fuel for every 10 minutes it idles.
- Measure your tyre pressure regularly: Driving a vehicle with tyres under-inflated by 8 pounds per square inch, (0.55 BAR) can increase fuel consumption by up to 4%. It can also reduce the life of your tires by more than 10,000 kilometres.
- Don’t carry unnecessary weight: The fuel consumption of a mid-size car increases by about 1% for every 25 kilograms of weight it carries.
- Remove roof or bicycle racks: Streamline your vehicle by taking off the racks when you’re not using them. Aerodynamic drag can increase fuel consumption by as much as 20% on the motorway.
- Use air conditioning sparingly: Air conditioning can increase a vehicle’s fuel consumption by as much as 20%. Open the windows when you’re driving in the city and use the flow-through ventilation system with the windows up on the motorway. If you do use air conditioning, use the re-circulate option.