Skilled motorists maximize a full tank
The letters “ECO” light up green or red on the dashboard of the Kia Innovation sedan, depending whether you are driving efficiently or wasting fuel. Provided by the company
In response, local governments are renting out bicycles and distributing energy account books for households free of charge.
The Environment Ministry has come up with 10 commandments for eco-friendly driving to get more people to minimize fuel consumption.
For example, it suggests refraining from driving at over 100 kilometers per hour and changing lanes too often, as it requires abrupt acceleration.
Credit cards that offer discounts or cash-back service when you buy fuel. Provided by the companies
If the driver motors in an energy-saving way, the letters “ECO” light up green on the sedan’s dashboard, and go red and white if the driving hurts fuel efficiency.
“This is the first time an eco-driving system has been fitted in a Korean car,” said a Kia Motors spokesman.
The feature was previously only fitted in some Japanese vehicles such as the Honda Accord and Toyota Corolla.
But you don’t have to buy an energy-saving car to make better use of the precious fuel in your tank. Other energy-saving methods are easy to carry out.
Use oil-saving credit cards
Not many people use cash at gas stations nowadays, mainly because they use credit cards that offer discounts of up to 60 won (6 cents) per liter at gas stations under partnership with the card issuers.
The discount used to be 100 won to 120 won a liter until recently, but the Financial Supervisory Service lowered the ceiling to prevent overheated competition among card issuers.
Instead of providing discounts, some credit cards run a cash-back service. That means drivers can have a certain portion of their gas bill saved as cash (60 won to 80 won per liter) that they spend later. So if you use 50 liters of gas at a time, you can save 4,000 won paying later.
“New cards fitted with the fuel-cost discount feature exploded in the first half as fuel prices rose to record levels,” said Hyundai Card spokesman Min Woon-sik.
Check fuel costs at gas stations
Drivers can check and compare per-liter fuel costs in cyberspace. At Opinet, run by the Korea Oil Corporation, for example, users can search gas stations in the neighborhood and classify them according to fuel types (gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas) and prices.
Then the driver can select a gas station that provides the cheapest fuel. Price information is updated at noon every day on Opinet. Other sites include Oil Price Watch and Oil Navi, whose servers often get bogged down by the overwhelming number of site visitors.
Drive well
No matter how much money you save on gas by buying cheap, bad driving habits can ruin your budget. “Removing your foot from the accelerator when the rpm [revolutions per minute] reach 1,500 helps save fuel because the engine stops consuming oil,” said Lee Jung-wong, deputy director of the environmental transportation division at the Environment Ministry.
Experts also advise drivers to reduce the number of times they press down on the brakes because automobiles consume much more fuel when accelerating after braking than when the car is driven at a consistent speed.
The most economical speed is between 60 kilometers (37.28 miles) and 80 kilometers per hour and you use less fuel in neutral in traffic jams
By Seo Ji-eun Staff Reporter [spring@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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