So I decided this week to drive slower down the Hume Highway and M5 on my daily commute. On the Hume I did 90km/h and M5 80km/h. Always in the left lane of course(and I still pissed off a lot of people it seems).
I drive close to 1000km a week for my business and normally would fill up every 3-4 days and get around 800km a tank with my 2024 VW Caddy Cargo TSI Van.
This week I went a whole week without filling up and still had fuel left over at 1000km before I filled up. I could have easily done another 50-100km.
Including urban driving average fuel consumption was at 5L/100km for the full tank. Down from ~6.5L/100km previously.
Really didn't expect such a major improvement with driving slower and calmer. Funny thing is overall I don't think I lost a lot of time in between trips and I also felt a lot less stressed just taking it easy lol.
Posted by SuleyGul
16 Comments
Also make sure to keep your tyres filled up. Makes a world of difference.
Not really strange at all, even a few weeks back i was talking to someone at work and they were getting solar panels installed and the installer guy had to drive back to pick up extra panels and was pissed off because now they have to start driving much slower than they use to because of the cost of fuel. They were just trying to absorb as much cost as possible without passing it on to the customer.
The worst type of driver. Driving intentionally well below the limit just endangers everyone else on the road.
there are these archival footage videos from America during the 1970’s fuel crisis where they instituted speed limits and campaigns to curb fuel consumption, and it does work, even on those older less fuel efficient engines.
Fucking hell… Is this one of the crazy fucking van tradies that go 300 miles an hour waking up to their petrol usage?:) The world is changing!
The only modifications a lot of drivers need to make are to start driving *at* the speed limit, and to be less aggressive with their feet on the accelerator pedals. They’d be surprised how much further they get with a full tank of fuel – but no, everyone’s driving with their penises and their ball sacks on the pedals instead, apparently.
thats pretty good, our old jetta TDI would do 4.3-4.4 through syd to newcastle, it would prob sit 5-6L/100 in sydney though
even on a 30 min drive in sydney youre not saving much more then 2 mins gunning it and sitting 10 over. If you ever had to take 2 cars to the same place, one a bit of a lead foot and one strictly speed limit you will know what I mean
If you go away with family even on the highway there isnt much difference when you have someone speeding vs one that isnt. Over a 2h drive its less then 10 mins
Assuming you went 20 km/h under in both cases. Depending on how accurate your speedo is, the actual speed difference may be even as much as approx. 30 km/h. That’s a significant speed difference, I’d say veering on dangerous.
You used less fuel, but you caused others behind you to have to slow down, wait for a spot to open and then accelerate again. And due to the speed difference being pretty large, that likely includes B-doubles. I’d say it’s *very* likely that the overall fuel supply and environmental impact you had was negative rather than positive, i.e. you made some savings but externalised the costs on people around you. Sure, we’d burn less fuel if we *all* drove slower, but that’s not what’s happening here.
Keeping to the left is good, but also makes it potentially harder for people on on ramps to gauge what speed they should speed up to, which can cause some danger as well as waste their fuel if they need to slow down.
I’d suggest driving at the speed limit, but being less aggressive. Keep more distance to the car in front of you, so you need to brake and accelerate less often, but still moving with the actual speed of traffic.
“*The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated that fuel consumption of vehicles travelling at 90km/h was 23 per cent better than when the same vehicles were travelling at 110km/h.*”
[https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/what-is-the-best-speed-to-drive-for-fuel-economy/](https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/what-is-the-best-speed-to-drive-for-fuel-economy/)
Please be advised, also, that sitting 20 to 30 under the limit is illegal because in most cases you are impeding the flow of traffic.
https://roadsense.org.au/fines-for-driving-too-slow/#:~:text=It
According to that source you can be fined up to 20 penalty points. Which I’d wager is more expensive that a few extra, I mean a lot of extra bucks in the tank.
That said, when I’m camping fully loaded and shit on my roof I sit 10 under on the highways, or no greater than 100ks.
Not driving like a twat trying to get places yesterday is more economical, who knew…
I have done this for years, even since buying a more fuel efficient vehicle. It’s not as efficient as your’s OP (I get 100km from around 10L combined) but it’s almost twice as efficient as my previous V8. One of the reasons I had to get a different car!
Ever since I have driven my new car, I usually stick to around 90km on 100km speed limited roads. I could go slower, but 90 is a good compromise and you just have to look at your tachometer to see it. With mine, doing 90km on cruise control reduces rpm by a couple of hundred under 2k rpm which is around what 100km/hr does. Generally more torque = more fuel required.
Keeping good pressure will also increase fuel efficiency, as will limiting a/c usage, or not having it so cold/warm I guess.
Eta: The thing that kills me (and most cars) is the stop start, so I hate when I have to do a lot of that sort of driving around towns near me that are mostly 50km zones.
I’ve done similar experiments in the past (I mean hasn’t everyone done it who has got fuel consumption displayed on the dashboard??)
My major learning was that it isn’t just your top speed but how hard you accelerated to reach that speed. OP next week try driving at 100kph but taking longer to get there, and just gentler driving in general. Will be interesting to compare.
driving 20km below any limit is borderline hazardous for those around you imo. at that speed you are basically an obstacle
You do you, but you deserve to cop flack for driving slow on the freeway. People have places to be and you’re holding them up
Actually saw a ranger raptor driving at the speed limit today…. tough times