How to Improve Fuel Consumption

With fuel prices ever increasing, it has never been more important to get the most out of your money. By making small changes to your driving style, maintaining your vehicle and careful planning you can improve your fuel consumption which in return will save you money.

Here are our top tips to help improve your fuel consumption.

Plan Your Trip
Getting lost is only going to increase your fuel consumption. By making sure you know how to get from A to B will not only help your fuel economy but also help your stress levels.

Remove Excess Weight
It’s simple. The lighter the car, the less energy is need to propel the vehicle, therefore improving fuel consumption. Most of us are guilty of carrying unnecessary items that we don’t need, normally we just haven’t bothered taking them out of the car. Carrying an extra 45kg increases fuel consumption by 1 – 2% so by removing that tent from the camping trip 2 months ago, or taking out your work tools when you’re not driving to a job will help your fuel economy.

Check Your Tyres
Your tyres are the only contact with the road. Under inflated tyres will only increase your fuel consumption as it takes more energy to keep them moving. Keeping your tyres inflated to the manufacturer’s recommendation can increase fuel efficiency by up to 3% as well as increasing grip levels and durability of your tyres.

Accelerate ‘Correctly’
Every driving situation is different so it may not be possible for your to ‘correctly’ accelerate each time but using this tip, when possible, will help with fuel economy.

Accelerating with your foot to the floor will use more fuel. Accelerating at the same pace as a snail will only leave you accelerating for a longer period of time. Finding a balance between these two extremes is the key to improving your fuel consumption. Accelerating smoothly, with a moderate pace will give you better fuel efficiency than the first two examples.

In a manual car, a practice called ‘short shifting’ can be used. This means that you change to a higher gear once you’ve reached your desired speed. For example, if your are accelerating to 30mph use 1st and 2nd gear, then shift directly to 4th, missing out the 3rd gear. However please not that this is different for every car, your car may not be able to efficiently maintain 30mph in 4th gear, you may need to be in 3rd instead.

Read The Road
As we are all aware braking slows down your car wasting energy you’ve already used accelerating. By reading the road ahead, and maintaining a more constant speed, it will help your fuel consumption. Most fuel is consumed when accelerating so by looking out for anything that might make you stop, such as traffic lights or parking cars, you can coast to such situations (when safe to do so) instead of stopping thus not having to accelerate as much to return to your previous speed.

Maintain Your Vehicle
Maintaining your car, and keeping it in the best possible working order will help your fuel consumption. Making sure your oil levels (and condition of your oil) are good, that your air filters are breathing okay, and sensors are all functioning correctly will help keep your engine running efficiently and improve fuel economy.

Do you practice any of the techniques above?

MJP Motoring Solicitors