Traveling Sustainable: Tips From Continental for Saving Fuel and Electric Power on Vacation

With a few simple tricks, vacationers can cut the amount of gasoline, diesel or electric power their car uses at their destination

- One tip is to adjust tire pressures

- Removing extra items attached to the car can also reduce air resistance and therefore lower consumption

Hanover, Germany, July 18, 2024. Cutting the amount of fuel or electric power your car uses is easily done – on vacation, just as in everyday driving. Indeed, a few simple yet effective steps will help you look after both the environment and your finances. The tire experts at Continental have put together a few tips for the job at hand.

You should check your tire pressures when you reach your destination as well as before you leave home. Having arrived with a car full of luggage, it is now time to unpack and return it to its normal load. This also means adjusting the tire pressures accordingly – the target values can be found in the owner’s manual or on a label in the glove compartment, on the inside of the fuel filler cap or on the door pillar. Inflating the tires to the correct pressure ensures low rolling resistance, short braking distances, precise handling and comfort, and maximizes the mileage of the tires.

Giving your car a thorough clear-out also brings down fuel/electric power consumption: the less a car has to carry around, the less energy the drive system will use. So it makes sense to take as many items as possible out of the car that you do not need for journeys while you’re away.

Items fixed to the car, such as roof boxes and luggage racks, should be taken off. These increase air resistance significantly, causing the car to consume more energy – whether that’s electric power, gasoline or diesel. Added to which, they are bad for comfort, as they generate clearly perceptible wind noise. This will be particularly noticeable in electric cars, due to the absence of an engine sound to mask the wind noise.

Bicycle carriers – both roof- and rear-mounted – also burn through energy and generate annoying noise. Removing them therefore not only reduces the car’s appetite for energy, it enhances the feel-good factor for those on board.

If you are heading off on vacation with a caravan, you should also remove any auxiliary mirrors when you arrive. These not only make the car unnecessarily wide, like all attached items, they also increase air resistance. Take them off, and you can soak up the holiday vibes and save money at the same time.