Changes in your driving style can save you hundreds of rands of fuel each year, improve road safety and prevent wear on your vehicle. Adopt these 5 driving techniques to lower your vehicle’s fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 25%.
1. Accelerate gently
The harder you accelerate the more fuel you use. In the city, you can use less fuel by easing onto the accelerator pedal gently.
2. Maintain a steady speed
When your speed dips and bursts, you use more fuel and more money. 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%.
3. 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.
4. Avoid high speeds
Keep to the speed limit and save on fuel! Most cars, vans, pickup trucks 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, at 120 km per hour, a vehicle uses about 20% more fuel than at 100 km per hour. On a 25-km trip, this spike in speed – and fuel consumption – would cut just two minutes from your travel time.
5. 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.
More ways to use less fuel
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 3-litre engine wastes 300 millilitres (over 1 cup) of fuel for every 10 minutes it idles.
Measure your tyre pressure every month
Driving a vehicle with tyres under-inflated by 56 kilopascals can increase fuel consumption by up to 4%. It can also reduce the life of your tyres by more than 10,000 kilometres.
Use a manual transmission properly
Pay attention to the rev limiter. Use it to know when to shift a manual transmission for the best fuel efficiency. The higher the rpm, the more fuel the engine is burning. So shift through the lower gears smoothly and quickly, and build up speed in the higher gears.
Don’t carry unnecessary weight
Remove items such as sports equipment from your vehicle. The less it weighs, the less fuel your vehicle will use. 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 highway.
Use air conditioning sparingly
Air conditioning can increase a vehicle’s fuel consumption by as much as 20%. If you do use air conditioning, use the re-circulate option. It will minimize the impact.
Plan ahead
- Map out your route, especially if it’s long
- Listen to traffic reports and avoid accidents, road construction and other trouble spots
- Avoid roads that cut through major cities and are dotted with stoplights, intersections and pedestrians
- Use highways when you can
Combine trips
Longer excursions let your vehicle’s engine warm up to its most fuel-efficient temperature.
- Run your errands one after the other
- Plan your route to avoid backtracking and rush-hour traffic
