Picture taken from http://europe.theoildrum.comPlan before you drive to your destination. In other words, don't be in a rush in which you tend to be more heavy footed on the accelerator (hence more fuel consumption), don't get lost and avoid roads with the most traffic (start - stop motion). So if you are riding your bicycle, you will most likely choose the shortest path to your destination with less hills, obstacles and traffic along the way. And you tend to leave earlier with the bicycle so that you can take your sweet time cycling there without breaking too much sweat.
Set off without carrying unnecessary load. So take out all unused and unnecessary items from the trunk and from the roof rack before you make your trip. If you ride bicycles before, you will definitely know the importance of not having unnecessary additional weight on you or on the bike.
Check tire pressure frequently. If you have ever rode a bicycle with insufficient tire pressure, you would know what I mean.
Drive soon after you start your engine. The longer you idle, the more fuel you waste. If you understand Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) graph, you would notice that most engine are not fuel (BSFC) efficient at idling speed. If you have not driven your car for a few days or it happen to be a very cold day (-20 C), you can leave it idling for maximum 30 seconds to ensure that the oil is distributed well inside the engine before driving off. It is similar to riding a bicycle, I am sure no one will want to pedal when the bike is stationary. It would be just a waste of energy
Depress accelerator slowly for eco driving or don't be heavy footed when driving. A rough guide, according to Toyota, is to reach 20 km/h after 5 seconds after starting. When accelerating, shift up gears as early as possible. Using higher gears normally means lower fuel consumption. Just like riding a bicycle, you would not want to pedal like a mad man in the beginning after starting in order to reach a certain speed. You would want a more smooth and fluid change of gears towards achieving optimum motion with less effort.
Keep smooth running at economical speed. Driving at constant speed (avoid fluctuation) of 40 - 50 km/h on ordinary road or 80 - 100 km/h on highway is said to be good. However, you need to need to test this out yourself because every car is different due to the different efficiencies of powertrain (engine + transmission) and drivetrains. So please take care of your oil level for both engine and transmission to ensure that friction is kept at minimum. And don't drive like you are programmed with binary numbers. I know some people drive like that .. full throttle until vehicle reaches certain speed and then release acccelerator to slow down vehicle and continue to accelerate again in order to reach desired vehicle speed. One can get nauseated in such jerking driving style. This is bad for the passengers in your car and also bad for fuel consumption.
Release accelerator as soon as possible before stopping or slowing down. In other words, don't wait until the last minute to brake before a red light. Be alert during driving and anticipate the traffic condition in front of you.
Stop idling as mentioned in item 4. Stop your engine is you stop more than 1 minute. Modern engines enable you to get in and go relatively easy unless you did not take care of the car in the first place.
- Minimise the use of air conditioner. Aiyoo .. in Malaysia in the heat of the day, no sane person would want to off their air conditioner. But I think it is possible not to use the air conditioner in the early hours of the day and late in the night. Seriously, the air conditioner does zap out quite a lot of power from the engine hence increasing fuel consumption during usage
Finally, please check out this video posted by Eutube below for more information on eco driving.
