If you own a vehicle, be it a car or a motorcycle, fuel economy matters a lot! Better fuel economy leads to sensible ownership costs and reduces your carbon footprint as well. Fuel saving could reduce the amount of money wasted on owning a depreciating asset that brings happiness to your face. So, here is a comprehensive guide on how you can improve engine efficiency and get optimal fuel economy on your vehicle to save more money and run longer miles on a single tank!
When we are buying vehicles, most people pay attention to looks, fuel efficiency, and features on offer. So when people come home in their new car, they start complaining that the company claims that their vehicle will return this much mileage, but why isn’t it so efficient? The government fluctuates prices of fuel so much that fuel efficiency has become a concern to vehicle owners. Let’s see how we can improve fuel efficiency and reduce costs.
Maintain Constant Speed
Continuously changing speeds can maximize fuel consumption. Keep a constant pace when you are on an open road or highway. Using cruise control will help you save your petroleum bills.
Drive Calmly
Be gentle to paddles, don’t accelerate or decelerate too frequently, and never go hard on paddles. Being aggressive on the accelerator and brake paddles will reduce your fuel efficiency as the engine will have to do more work to gain momentum again.
Turn Off Your Engine on Signals
If you are standing at a traffic light or stuck in a stop-and-go situation, turning off the engine will reduce fuel consumption. Only an electric vehicle will avoid using more fuel when you are stopped at a signal! An internal combustion engine will end up gulping a lot more fuel idling.
Avoid Half-clutch Riding
While driving; do not ride over a half-engaged clutch. It will waste power and reduce efficiency. Using proper driving patterns will save much fuel for your car and help you with your overall fuel savings target!
Be in The Right Gears
Try to shift the top gears as fast as possible. Everyone knows their car’s power delivery behavior, so as per that change gears in the low rev range to gain maximum efficiency. Revving your engine hard requires more fuel in the engine. When you slot into the right gear, the engine tends to consume less fuel.
Do Not cross Speed Limits
A car will burn less fuel at a speed of 40-50 km/h than at 80-100 km/h. So, don’t overspeed unless you are in a hurry or on the expressway. Higher speeds increase fuel consumption for your vehicle. If you are driving a car in speed limits, your car uses the right amount of fuel.
Maintain Tyre Pressure
Always maintain enough air pressure in the tires as per the recommendation of the manufacturer. It will reduce rolling resistance. Less rolling resistance cuts the emissions and affects fuel economy overall. With good kinetic energy, less fuel is consumed.
Maintain Your Car Regularly
Regular check-ups and maintaining the engine and rotating parts will help increase fuel efficiency. Regular service will increase car life as well as fuel efficiency.
Planning Your Trips
Schedule your trips, and choose to time when there will be minimal traffic on the roads, and instead of taking many short trips, make a plan to go on one trip and complete all your work together.
Maintain Quality of Fuel
Always refuel from trusted pumps, so the quality of petrol will be maintained.
Close Windows and Sunroof
While going at higher speeds, shut all the windows and sunroof, so that wind resistance can be reduced. While at higher speeds, AC will give better efficiency than open windows.
Turn Off The AC if Not Needed
AC compressor will throw load on the engine, so turn it off if not needed. A regular car with a regular engine will end up wasting a lot of engine horsepower on cooling your car with the air conditioner turned on! To improve your average fuel consumption, you need to drive with the windows closed. This way, the car will become more aerodynamics efficient, and reduced drag will help to reduce your fuel consumption.
Weight reduction
Never overload your car, remove all the unnecessary items from the car. More weight means more load on the engine, which means more fuel consumption.
Buy Cars with Better Fuel Efficiency
If you are going to use your cars regularly to commute in the city or even on longer highway trips, make sure to drive a more fuel-efficient car with good fuel efficiency, less emission, and helping you reducing carbon footprint figures. Having a better per-gallon fuel-efficient automobile will help you save a greater amount of fuel.
The above tips will help you to increase the fuel efficiency of your vehicle by about 10-20% more. You can also go for a carpool to save fuel and save the earth. Hybrid vehicles are now arriving in the market, opt for them. With the surging fuel prices in the global market and increasing greenhouse gas emissions, trying to drive with realistic and effective actions makes sense.
