Driving behaviours to save money and maximise efficiency

MUNICH: The way you drive can save a lot of fuel and energy - and if you have an electric car, you can expand its range, as well as save money.

Think ahead as much as possible, say the specialists at Germany's TÜV Süd inspection agency, which shares a few ways to save fuel.

Shift up in good time: In a regular car with manual transmission, this reduces the revs and your fuel consumption. You can drive modern cars smoothly in city traffic in fifth or sixth gear, depending on the gear ratio, the experts say.

With automatics, slightly lift your accelerator pedal when accelerating to enable the transmission to select the next higher and more fuel-efficient gear on its own.

Let your car roll: When you're drawing up to a red light or entering a town, let your car roll with the gear engaged and disengage the clutch as late as possible. The engine's overrun cut-off ensures that the fuel supply is interrupted and the engine brakes the car without burning fuel. You can also do this when you're driving down hill.

Electric cars can often be slowed down by pulling back on the accelerator. You can also increase your range by using the car's recuperation system, which leads the car to recover braking energy.

Turn the engine off: It's worth switching off the engine in traffic jams or when stopping for more than 15 seconds. Cars with automatic start-stop systems do so automatically. On average, 1 hour of idling your vehicle costs about 1 litre of fuel.

Turn off power-draining features: Things like air conditioning and seat or rear window heating should only run as long as they are really needed, in a further way to reduce fuel consumption.

Clear up: If you are carrying 100 kilograms of unnecessary weight in your car, that can lead to about 0.3 litres more fuel consumption, according to Tüv Süd.

Check your tyre pressure: Even if your tyres have a pressure shortfall of 0.2 bar, it can raise your fuel consumption by up to 10%.