With the higher fuel prices it is attractive to do as long as possible with the contents of the tank. We therefore give tips for economical driving in daily traffic. Because of course we don’t want to crawl forward like a snail.
What is the secret of economical driving? Accelerating and braking takes a lot of energy, everyone knows that. In this article we give tips. They apply to cars with a fuel engine, but you can of course also apply them if you drive an electric car.
slow down
When you accelerate, it costs energy. That is known. So slow acceleration is the start of economical driving. But of course you don’t have to exaggerate.
Drive at regular speed
With a lot of braking and acceleration you also use more. By looking further ahead and letting go of the accelerator when you notice that traffic is slowing down, you have to slow down less and therefore accelerate less when the traffic continues. An electric car then regenerates power, it even charges the battery again if you just let it roll out. Double bonus.
Use the cruise control
In addition to anticipating, you also have to use the cruise control. It’s made to keep your speed steady – and it does it better than anyone else. Do you have dynamic cruise control? Then you benefit even more because it helps to look further ahead if you set the distance at least on the second level of your car.
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Driving fast creates a vortex in the tank
What applies to the drivers of an electric car also applies to the combustion engine: speed means higher consumption. Especially above 100, 110 km/h, consumption increases due to greater rolling resistance and air resistance. Cornelis Kit explains this in the explanation video about air resistance.
Avoid windcatchers
While we’re on the subject of air resistance: you also drive more economically if you remove the roof racks, roof boxes, bicycle carriers and the like from the car when you don’t need them (anymore). They provide extra air resistance. And probably it is also nice and quiet in the car because you have less noise. A convertible with an open roof is of course not an aerodynamic miracle, but if you want to drive economically, make sure that you keep the windows and the open roof closed.
Driving economically with tires under pressure
Driving around with low tire pressures requires more energy than nice and hard tires. This allows the car to drive economically and roll out better. It has even more good properties, for example because the tires wear less. So make sure that there is always enough air in the tires. And check tire pressure regularly.
Keep an eye on large power consumers
It seems so easy, leave the rear window heating on, let the air conditioning work hard or the fan on the highest setting, because you can. Although these run on electricity, the alternator has to take care of that. This gives extra resistance to the engine, which in turn has to work harder. And that costs extra fuel.
And turn off the engine!
Do you stand still longer? For example because a bridge is open? In many modern cars, the engine then automatically stops running. But if it continues to idle, just turn it off. If you stand still for more than about 20 seconds, the fuel before starting already outweighs what you save by letting the engine run at idle.
Keep track of the statistics and compare
To measure is to know – and you can do that while driving. With many cars you can show the (average) consumption on the dashboard. Set it up so that you continue to see the average of each tank and then you know what you are using – and you can compare. Keep track of it for your car in ‘My Car’ in AutoWeek. You create a free account and keep track of when you fill up how much. Then you can also compare the consumption with others who have the same car and keep track of that.
In addition to these tips, you can also use more tips and handy apps that tell you where you can refuel cheaply.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl