ECO-DRIVING UNCOVERED (2010, EN)

Editor's Notes

1. We’re here today to discuss eco-driving; the way that making small changes to your driving technique can bring about savings in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. This isn’t a brand new concept – we know that people don’t always drive their cars as efficiently as they could and that making improvements could help them achieve better fuel consumption. That’s common sense. But what is new is that, today, we can share with you the results of Fiat’s study into eco-driving, which gives us the first ever insight into how effective eco-driving can be as a technique when ordinary people try to apply it to their everyday driving, over an extended period of time. We already know that learning about how to drive more efficiently and trying these techniques out can make a difference. For example, you could drive around a track in ‘normal’ mode and then in ‘eco’ mode, if you are given the right instructions, and see a difference in your fuel consumption. But until now we have not known how big the savings could be away from the track and on the roads. We have not known whether it is possible to turn a one-off eco-driving experience into long-term behavioural change; whether it is possible to eco-drive all the time, in everyday life, and what sort of savings can be expected in everyday conditions.
2. Thanks to eco:Drive, Fiat’s in-car tool that records data about how you drive and then analyses this on a desktop application to show drivers where and how to improve, we have been able to gather a huge bank of data about how people drive, and how eco-driving can make a difference. It tells us about the effectiveness of eco-driving for a large number of people, over an extended period of time, in a range of road and traffic conditions. We have analysed 428,000 journeys, made by 5,700 drivers, over 150 days, across 5 different countries. This is the closest anyone has come to understanding the ‘real-life’ impacts of eco-driving. Why does this matter? Well, we are all under pressure to reduce CO2 emissions and the car industry more than most. Whilst as manufacturers we are investing millions and working hard on technological innovations to reduce emissions, we also have – in eco-driving – the possibility of bringing down emissions of all drivers, whatever car they are driving – and doing so today, not in the future. But there are questions – how much can ordinary drivers save? Is changing drivers’ behaviour really possible? How can we make it easier for people to understand and adopt eco-driving techniques? Our study answers these questions. By understanding more about the effectiveness of eco-driving, we can all learn how to better unlock the potential of this approach to reducing emissions, so that everyone can benefit. BACKGROUND TO FIAT AND THE ENVIRONMENT Before we explore the findings of our study in more detail, I’d like to talk briefly about Fiat’s broader perspective on the environmental challenges facing the car industry, what we are doing to tackle these challenges, and why we decided to develop eco:Drive. Creating small, economical, fuel efficient vehicles is in our heritage. It’s what we are known for. Since Fiat was founded over a century ago, our mission has been to provide vehicles that enhance people’s quality of life, making driving fun and affordable, while making as little impact as possible on the world around. Throughout our history we have led the way in developing new technology that can make driving even more accessible and economical. By their very nature, our designs have always been environmentally aware - our cars are made to fit into their environment and not to impose on it, providing solutions to people’s mobility needs in the most efficient way possible. Today we are still recognised as the leading manufacturer of small, practical and efficient cars. And our heritage as an environmentally-aware manufacturer of economical cars shapes our approach to innovation and design. We focus on creating ever-more efficient vehicles, and are proud to have the lowest average CO2 emissions of any car manufacturer in Europe.We are constantly exploring new ways to improve the efficiency of our vehicles, from our Start&Stop technology, available in xx models, to our MultiAir engines that reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 10% while improving performance.
3. So we are working hard, and achieving good results, on the technological side. But should this be where the story ends? We don’t think so. Technological innovations have, for a long time, been the focus of the car industry in its response to the challenges of climate change, and rightly so – we have a responsibility to innovate to produce low emission cars if we are to remain relevant in the future. But we also think that a car manufacturer’s responsibility should go beyond the car itself , and that we should also be thinking about the role of the driver and his behaviour. But not much of this is going on. Just looking at this chart, which shows the advertising spend on communicating environmental technology in cars, compared with eco-driving campaigns, we can see that very little attention has been paid to changing behaviour to date. Why? Well, because it can be difficult to encourage people to put it into practice, and it can be very difficult to measure the effects of doing so. What’s more, eco-driving doesn’t have the ‘sexiest’ reputation – to some people, it means driving lowly, not having fun – although we’ve found that in fact average speed is higher for eco-drivers. Without knowing the full potential of eco-driving, or how best to encourage people to put it into practice, there hasn’t been a huge appetite to promote the technique as a way to reduce emissions. We wanted to find a way to reap the benefits of eco-driving and overcome these challenges, which is why we developed eco:Drive....
4. We knew that by making simple changes to the way you drive, you can significantly reduce your CO2 emissions. With eco:Drive, we wanted to show drivers exactly how they can drive more efficiently and what effect that has on their fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. eco:Drive is an interactive, personalised tool that makes use of Fiat’s in-car Blue&Me infotainment system. Plugging a USB key into the Blue&Me port on the dashboard allows eco:Drive to record information about your driving style. You then just plug this USB into your computer to see how you performed, how you can improve, and track the fuel and CO2 savings you manage to make. We believe that offering advice based on the individual’s own driving style, and showing drivers what they are saving over time, are key to encouraging people to adopt, and maintain, eco-driving techniques.
5. So, what have we learnt from eco:Drive? We have seen that eco-driving works – on average, eco:Drivers reduced their fuel consumption and emissions by 6%, and the best drivers managed to reduce by 16%. That means a saving of 133kg of CO2 per person, on average, over a year – 354kg for the best drivers. And they are saving money too, of course – from €79 to €211 annually. For the average family (1.8-2 cars), saving €79 per car on fuel could pay for six trips to the cinema in a year for a family of four. Imagine if everyone in Europe was eco-driving – what could we achieve? The fuel we could save would fill 13 oil tankers; the CO2 emissions avoided would be the same level as New Zealand’s total carbon footprint; and the moment we’d save adds up to 40% of the total investment in European renewable energy last year. Of course, this is a utopia, but we want to give you a flavour of the power of eco-driving if we could manage to encourage as many people as possible to make simple changes to the way they drive.
6. We’ve seen the impressive results of eco-driving; now let’s look more closely at what eco-driving involves, and what we have discovered about how well people learn the techniques. We consider good eco-driving technique to include 4 key components: - Firstly, smooth acceleration. Accelerating sharply makes the engine work much harder and burn more fuel, so we advise gently, gradual acceleration. - Secondly, early gear changes. Shifting up a gear as early as you can, without losing momentum, helps to keep the engine running at the most efficient level of revs . - Next, good average speed. Keeping a steady, moderate speed allows the engine vehicle to work at optimum efficiency. - Finally, smooth deceleration. Fuel use is lower when drivers anticipate reductions in speed earlier and decelerate gradually keeping the gear engaged allowing the engine to run in fuel cut-off mode , rather than braking sharply. From analysing the eco:Drive data, we found that there are differences in how well people naturally perform on the four components, and how much they manage to improve. Before receiving any eco-driving tips, drivers tended to perform best on deceleration and gear changes. After learning to eco-driving, they improved in all four areas, although it seems that gear changes were the area that showed the most scope for improvement, while drivers found it harder to make big improvements in their average speed. The four areas contribute different amounts to overall eco-driving improvements. Early gear changes accounts for 31% of overall improvements, whilst smooth acceleration accounts for 29%. Efficient deceleration contributes 25%, and maintaining a steady average speed, 15%.
7. We’ve also found that eco-driving doesn’t just save fuel and CO2 emissions – it also helps people become better drivers, and has a real effect on the characteristics of their usual journeys. Over a 30-day period of using eco:Drive, we saw that the average distance that people travel doesn’t change. So eco-driving doesn’t affect the way that people use their cars – how often and how far they travel. But although distance doesn’t change, average journey time does become shorter after drivers start to use eco:Drive – 3.3% shorter, or 4 hours per month. This means that drivers are driving at a higher average speed – why? Because, through the eco-driving advice, they have learnt to stop less often – in fact, average stopping time reduces by 13% over a 30-day period of using eco:Drive. What this shows is that drivers have learnt to drive less aggressively, to anticipate changing traffic flow and to avoid braking and accelerating sharply. The results are more efficient, more aware, and safer drivers. Eco-drivers are also more environmentally aware , which may have an impact on how likely they are to make other environmentally friendly choices in other areas of their lives in the future. Now that we’ve seen the results that drivers can achieve through eco-driving, we will consider these results in perspective, looking at eco-driving in comparison with other methods of emission reduction.
8. All technological innovations that reduce emissions – from start stop and hybrids, to improved aerodynamics and lower resistance tyres, involve R&D costs and material costs that are inevitably passed on – at least in part – to the consumer. Eco-driving is unique among emissions reduction methods in involving absolutely no costs to the consumer. Considering the level of CO2 that different methods can save, per euro that they cost, we can see that eco-driving is the most cost-effective method of reducing emissions. Of course, this does not mean that eco-driving is preferable to technological innovations. Technology is absolutely essential in driving down vehicle emissions. But, of course, its effects are limited by the number of people who choose, or are able, to purchase the vehicle with this lower emissions technology. What this chart shows is how important it is to take advantage of eco-driving as a free technique that will bring about real savings today, for any driver in any car. Eco-driving is also important as a complement of technology – even the lowest emission vehicle still needs to be driven efficiently if people are to get the most out of the technology that it offers. This is not a question of technology or eco-driving – it’s a matter of technology and eco-driving.
9. The eco:Drive data showed us how people improved. It also gave us an indication of how people didn’t improve – that is, the factors that seem to limit how well people are able to eco-drive. One of these factors is traffic. This graph plots the average speed and fuel consumption of all eco:Drive trips, and shows that driving at lower average speeds uses considerably more fuel. Why is this? Well, heavy urban traffic, and road infrastructures such as traffic lights, make people drive more slowly, sitting in traffic and stopping and starting more often – all of which uses more fuel. Implementing eco-driving techniques, of stopping and starting gradually and maintaining a constant speed, is very difficult in these sorts of conditions. What this simple graph shows us, however, is how important it is to try and overcome this challenge. Take London, one of the slowest-moving cities in Europe. If London could increase the average journey speed of its cars by 5 kph – by making traffic flow more fluidly – fuel consumption and CO2 emissions would be reduced by 11%. There is real potential here for carmakers to work with town and city authorities to try to improve traffic conditions so that drivers can drive more efficiently, and CO2 emissions can be reduced. These findings reinforce the importance of Fiat’s decision to introduce Start&Stop technology throughout our range.
10. Traffic isn’t the only factor that affects how well a person can eco-drive – it seems from our data that nationality also plays a role. We have found that there are clear patterns in the characteristics of driving in the five different countries included in the study. This suggests that there are established driving cultures in different places, which may make some people more or less likely to be able to adapt to eco-driving easily. How people are driving around you makes a difference, and the more people who learn to eco-drive, so that a ‘critical mass’ of efficient drivers can be achieved, the easier it will be for everybody to achieve results. What this shows is that context is important – there is no single European driving style . Instead, our data suggests that eco-driving advice needs to be specific – tailored to a nationality or, even better, to the individual himself. Tailoring advice to people’s needs is more likely to bring about effective change in driving styles.
11. Having observed the impact of traffic and road infrastructure on maintaining a steady, fluid speed, and the influence of culture on driving style, we can assess which countries are the best places to eco-drive in. By calculating the average journey speed of the eco:Drivers in different countries, and the average stop time per day, we can see that Germany is the easiest place to eco-drive in. It achieves the highest average speed (34.3km/h) and the lowest average stop time (6min/day). It is closely followed by France, with an average speed of 34km/h and 8min/day stop time. At the other end of the scale, Spain is revealed to be the hardest place to eco-drive in, with an average journey speed of 30.9 km/h, and an average daily stop time of 10 minutes. As well as being intriguing to see the differences between driving patterns in different countries, this information is useful because it shows the importance of understanding local context when trying to spread messages about eco-driving and change driver behaviour. The better we understand the prevailing driving styles and conditions in a certain place, the more we can tailor communications to that context.
12. So, where do we go from here? What should we do with this information? The key findings from the eco:Drive data are that eco-driving works, but it needs the right conditions in order to flourish. And, to create these conditions, it needs the collaboration of the car industry with government and drivers. Eco-driving needs to be communicated to as many people as possible - Greater communication of the importance of eco-driving will help to raise awareness and understating Introducing eco-driving into driving tests will help to introduce the behaviour early on and for better driving habits Including eco driving into driving license learning program and exams We need to make it easy for people who are trying to eco-drive to see their achievements and to stick to the techniques in the long term. - Live in-car feedback on eco-driving technique, and eco-meters on dashboards, will help to turn eco-driving into a habit for more drivers We need to find ways to make eco-driving easier in unfriendly urban environments - More fluid traffic systems will raise average speeds by helping drivers to avoid stopping and starting - Sat nav technology that offers eco routes – the route best suited to driving efficiently – will help drivers overcome some of the challenges of traffic and infrastructure What are our aspirations? We want eco-driving to become the norm – the typical, not the atypical, way of driving. And we want to see all eco-drivers achieving the highest possible savings – eco:Drive users achieved an average of 6% savings in fuel and CO2, but the best 10% managed 16% - we want to close that gap. If we all work together we believe we can meet these aspirations by creating the conditions that will allow every driver to unlock the potential of eco-driving. Fiat is committing to taking action in some specific areas – we are launching eco:Drive Live, to provide in-car feedback and advice on driving style, and we are also working with sat nav creators to explore the possibility of building better eco route technology. We look forward to working with other manufacturers, with governments and with drivers to do even more to help eco-driving deliver the emissions reductions that it promises.