Thread by @TurloughDownes

For those worried about #FuelPrices for cars: if you drive significant distances then you can *easily* reduce your fuel costs by around 40%. tl;dr speed kills fuel efficiency and driving slower makes a *big* difference /1

Most cars get their best fuel efficiency between 50 km/hr and 80 km/hr. Above 80 km/hr the majority of your fuel is being used to push the air in front of your car out of the way. /2

If you drive at 100 km/hr along a particular stretch of road then you will use about 50% more fuel than if you drive at 80 km/hr to cover that *same stretch of road*. /3

If you do motorway driving and suppose you have an average fuel efficiency car (say 8 litres/100 km) then a 10km stretch will cost you about €1.60 at today's prices, if you drive at 80 km/hr.

Drive that 10 km at 100 km/hr that same distance will cost you €2.40. /4

Now drive that 10 km stretch of motorway at 120 km/hr and it will cost you €3.52.

Slowing from 120 km/hr to 100 km/hr will go a long way towards erasing the impact of the recent #FuelPriceHike on your wallet: it reduces your fuel costs by about 40% for the same distance. /5

Lastly, if you don't drive on main arterial roads but do a lot of heavy traffic driving then drive as slow as possible: no point in burning fuel to accelerate when you'll just need to scrub that speed after a few metres. /end