FUEL SAVING POSSIBILITIES FOR CAR OWNERS

The purpose of this study was to find out the possibilities of fuel saving by vehicle drivers. The research consisted of three parts. The first part was a mailed interview dealing with the attitude of the drivers towards energy consumption. The second part deals with the effect of car service on fuel consumption and the third part with the effect of urban driving habits on fuel consumption. The points where the driver most often had tried to decrease fuel consumption were the following: more economical driving habits, decreasing car use on shopping and holiday trips, and improved car service. 45% of the drivers would not abandon car use at any fuel price. When studying the effect of car service on fuel consumption the fuel consumption of 31 cars was measured by the ECE-method. The fuel consumption of the cars decreased by about 4,0% on an average, immediately after the service. Fuel consumption depends much on driving habits. We showed 30 car users how to drive economically in city driving. After training the fuel consumption of the drivers was on an average 23,4% less than before. The savings obtained here can be dealt with in two parts: a 15-16% saving due to economic driving and a 7-8% saving due to training. (TRRL)