Eco-Driving

You have probably heard the phrase "eco-driving" or "economical driving" in daily life or during driving lessons, but what does it really mean, and how should you be incorporating it into your driving routine?

In this blog, we will delve into eco-driving, explore the techniques you can use, and explore the benefits of ensuring eco-driving is a part of your driving style and mindset.

What is eco-driving?

Eco-driving is a way to drive a vehicle in a smooth, safe, and cheaper way. Furthermore, it's much kinder to our environment too. There really are no negatives to eco-driving - it produces nothing but benefits!

What are the benefits to eco-driving?

Driving is very expensive, in fact, it's believed that other than a mortgage, it's the biggest financial commitment many of us will make in our lives. With that in mind, why not drive in a way that helps you save fuel, and therefore, save money?!

It is believed that driving in an eco-friendly manner can reduce our fuel bills by between 10 and 20%. This can easily equate to hundreds of pounds of savings each and every year.

With gentle acceleration, braking and anticipation of situations ahead, you will reduce the wear and tear on your engine, brake pads and discs, tyres, and gearbox. By looking after your car in this way, you will need to visit those very expensive mechanics less-frequently, which again results in a vastly reduced vehicle maintenance bill.

Eco-driving techniques also help promote safer driving in that it encourages a calm, controlled, and forward-thinking style of driving. This naturally lends itself to a lower risk of involvement in collisions, which none of us want.

Our planet is already in an environmentally poor state, so by incorporating eco-driving, we can all play our part in helping mother-earth. Burning less fuel means emitting less CO2 emissions, which are harmful to our environment.

Eco-driving techniques

Smooth acceleration is one of the core elements to eco-driving. To increase your speed smoothly and progressively, rather than aggressively will ensure your driving is much more eco-friendly.

Bursts of acceleration uses much more fuel, so a consistent amount of pressure on the accelerator will help a lot. 'Flooring it' should always be avoided!

We call these techniques 'acceleration sense'.

As an extension to 'acceleration sense', maintaining a steady speed also contributes to eco-friendly driving.

Higher gears should be used when possible, which reduces the rev-count on the engine, which results in less fuel being consumed. Lower gears should not be used for extensive periods of time.

When on long stretches of road, such as motorways, cruise control can be utilised to aide in this area.

Much of modern driving requires dealing with busy environments that cause us to deal with many hazards. By anticipating things ahead which will affect you, you will be able to manage your approach much better, allowing you to ease off the gas, apply early and gentle pressure to your brakes, and avoid unnecessary stops.

Managing your speed can also have eco-friendly benefits. Driving at 70mph uses significantly more fuel than driving at 60mph.

However, it's important to balance this technique with ensuring you are making sufficient progress and not affecting other road users. You must make use of speed limits when safe and suitable to do so.

'Idling' is when we are stationary in a vehicle, but we leave the engine running. This should be avoided where possible when considering eco-driving.

Many modern cars have what is called 'Auto Start/Stop', or similar, where the engine will cut off until you're ready to move again.

When parked, engines should always be switched off to avoid unnecessary fuel consumption and emissions.

The weight of your vehicle is also impactful on eco-driving. We are not suggesting you start ripping out seats or taking off the doors, but there are things you could consider to lighten the load.

For example, leaving your boot full of random items that do not need to be there, leaving roof racks on when unused, and always driving with a completely full tank of fuel all add weight to your car, which in turn uses more fuel.

Tyre pressures should also be maintained in accordance with your vehicles user manual. Under-inflated tyres will increase your fuel consumption due to increased drag on the vehicles. Having incorrectly inflated tyres will also affect the vehicles handling.

Air conditioning also uses fuel, so use it wisely. Ask yourself if you really need it on. Additionally, having your windows open also increased drag when driving, and therefore makes your car work harder, which uses more fuel.

And finally, plan your journeys well. Avoid peak traffic where possible. as well as frequent short journeys which don't allow your engine to warm up. Driving on a cold engine is far from eco-friendly.

We hope you have found this blog helpful. If you have any further questions, or would like to book your driving lessons with Day Tripper Driving Tuition in and around the Great Yarmouth and surrounding areas, please get in touch.

Adrian

Company Owner