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What is eco-driving?
Eco-driving is a set of practices designed to reduce your car's electricity consumption (or fuel consumption for internal combustion cars). It covers a wide range of behaviours that can be adopted to ensure smoother, more fuel-efficient driving.
Eco-driving is also an eco-citizen driving style that not only saves money, but also ensures greater road safety and greater respect for other road users. In short, eco-driving has nothing but positive points, so let's see how you can improve your driving!
Eco-driving: how do you go about it?
Having defined what eco-driving is, let's look at how to put it into practice.
Activate "eco" mode
Today, most electric vehicles are equipped with an "eco" mode. This mode helps to reduce the use of electricity. battery while you're driving. It reasonably reduces the power of your engine, and is therefore very appropriate to use in town, because there is no need to accelerate at high power when you are driving in built-up areas. It's a quick and easy first step to reducing fuel consumption.
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Preparing and optimising your journey
Your first objective: avoid traffic jams, which make you consume more fuel, and make your journey as short as possible (in terms of kilometres). So before you set off, find out which route you're going to take: which is the shortest and has the best traffic conditions, for example. You can use Waze to find out the traffic flow on your route in real time.
For longer journeys, for example when you go on a holidaysservices such as Chargemap will help you find the charging points available on your route. You can filter the results by a number of criteria, such as the power of the terminal, the type of socket selected, etc.
So you don't have to drive around in circles for 20 minutes before you find a charging point for your vehicle. What's more, using a GPS or route guidance application will also help you anticipate slow-downs and avoid unnecessary braking, bearing in mind that some applications such as Google Maps and Apple Maps are even starting to integrate charging points into their applications. We'll look at this point in more detail below. Finally, leave on time, because driving in a hurry is never a good thing.
Adopt a flexible driving style
Adopting a smoother, more fluid driving style is the basis of eco-driving, but what does it really mean? To drive more smoothly and with less energy consumption, you need to :
- Don't press the accelerator pedal too hard when you don't have to
- Example: There's no need to accelerate before reaching a red light or before slowing down.
- Don't brake hard when you don't have to, but decelerate gently.
- Example: In a traffic jam, instead of accelerating and braking just before reaching the car in front of you, decelerate before reaching it, so as not to accelerate unnecessarily.
- In plain English: AnticipateThe aim is to anticipate slow-downs and stops so as not to accelerate unnecessarily (but rather to decelerate).
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Reduce your speed
Another way of reducing fuel consumption is to reduce your speed. By reducing your speed, you also reduce the power needed to propel the car, so you save energy!
Switching off the engine during a prolonged stop
Switch off your engine every time you stop for more than 20 seconds. This will save energy in your battery and give you more power.autonomy on the road.
Remove unnecessary load from the vehicle
Removing unnecessary load from the vehicle means removing any equipment added to or in your vehicle that you don't need when you're driving, for example, unused roof bars cause you to use more energy because they make your vehicle heavier. Any unnecessary load should be removed to optimise the energy used.
Ensuring the vehicle is in good condition
Having a vehicle in good condition and well maintained is also important for economical driving. This means, for example, regular servicing at the garage or checking tyre pressure regularly. For example, a vehicle in poor condition can consume up to 25 % more energy. And under-inflated tyres increase fuel consumption and reduce roadholding. Checking your tyre pressure every month is quick and will benefit you in a number of ways.
See also - How do you maintain your electric car?
Pay attention to your ventilation
It may not be the first thing you think of, but your ventilation system uses a lot of energy, especially the air conditioning, which consumes the most energy. So next time you're out and about in town, open the window instead of turning on the air conditioning - it'll give you more range!
Maintain good aerodynamics
What does it mean to maintain good aerodynamics? That means that the air must circulate perfectly around the car, and not be blocked by anything else, especially at high speeds. Cars are designed to be aerodynamically efficient, so blocking the air with a roof box or opening your window when driving on the motorway has a negative effect on your car's aerodynamics. So always make sure you have the best possible aerodynamics!
Going further to reduce our environmental impact
Practising eco-driving means extending your battery's range and saving money, as well as limiting your environmental impact, because you recharge your car less and use less electricity. But you can also go further in limiting your environmental impact, for example by registering with a car-sharing website such as Blablacar and by offering other users the chance to accompany you on your journeys.
Another way of doing more for the planet is to switch to green tyres These tyres are made from silica, a component that consumes less energy than carbon. Priced at between €70 and €80, they're pretty affordable when you think of the savings they'll bring! An important detail when you consider that tyres absorb more than 30% of a vehicle's energy.
Why practice eco-driving?
We've already touched briefly on the advantages of this type of driving, but let's take a closer look. Eco-driving has many advantages. First of all, you'll drive more smoothly, which will help you to relax and be less stressed. Secondly, you'll extend the range of your car, giving you more freedom on long journeys. Practising eco-driving also means you can maintain your car better and extend its life. Finally, you'll be helping to make the roads safer for everyone. In short: eco-driving has no disadvantages, so there's no reason not to practise it!
