How to track your fuel consumption
If your vehicle doesn't have a fuel tracking mechanism, the following four easy steps show you how to calculate how many kilometres you get out of a tank of fuel. Using fuel efficient driving practices can increase the distance you travel for every tank.
STEP 1: Fill up your vehicle’s fuel tank completely and record the vehicle’s odometer reading (kilometres).
Example: the last time the tank was filled, the odometer reading was 40 200km.
STEP 2: When it’s time to refuel, fill the tank completely and record both the number of litres it took to fill the tank, as well as the vehicle’s new odometer reading. Once two odometer readings have been taken, you can calculate your vehicle’s fuel consumption.
Example: it took 56 litres to fill the tank, and this time around the odometer reading was 41 000km.
STEP 3: Calculate the distance travelled by subtracting the new odometer reading from the previous one.
Example: the distance driven would be 41 000km minus 40 200km = 800km.
STEP 4: Divide the number of litres it took to fill the tank by the distance travelled and multiply this value by 100. The result is the vehicle’s fuel consumption for that driving period.
Example: 56 litres ÷ 800km = 0.07.
0.07 x 100 = 7.0 litres (ℓ) per 100 km.
Therefore, the fuel consumption for that driving period would be 7ℓ/100km
What is your vehicle costing you to run?
Visit the AA of South Africa website to calculate how much it costs to operate your car.
The latest fuel prices are available here.
Would you like to know more about becoming a SMART Driver? Click here download the PDF version of the full Travel SMART programme manual.