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Toyota Fund for Europe Launches EcoDriving Program
21 September 2008
The Toyota Fund for Europe has launched EcoDriving—a new program to help Europeans reduce fuel consumption and cut CO2 exhaust emissions by as much as 10% through smarter driving habits.
Toyota and NGO network, Global Action Plan International, will organize up to 800 workshops, reaching an estimated 12,000 drivers across Spain, Belgium, Iceland, Norway, and the UK. Toyota will invest almost €300,000 (US$432,000) in EcoDriving, expanding the program to 10 countries by 2010. The first wave of workshops kicks off in local communities this month.
The program will target local authorities, private companies and community groups through half-day workshops that cater for up to 15 people. Under the guidance of trained supervisors, participants will learn new driving practices on specially-designed simulators that recreate the driving experience and test how far drivers can travel on 0.1 liters of fuel.
Toyota and NGO Ecolife piloted the program in Belgium last year, reaching nearly 5,000 people through dedicated workshops and participation in community events.
EcoDriving practices include shifting into a higher gear earlier, looking ahead and anticipating the traffic flow, keeping car windows closed and using the ventilation system. Comparable savings can be achieved through proper vehicle maintenance and planning journeys ahead of time. By having the correct tire pressure, for example, drivers can improve fuel economy by around 3%. Removing roof load to minimize wind drag can realize fuel savings as high as 40%.
EcoDriving does not mean that drivers have to purchase costly devices or modify their vehicles. By making simple changes to every-day driving behaviours, every driver, no matter what kind of vehicle they own, can contribute and benefit. The European Climate Change Programme has calculated that EcoDriving can realize savings of at least 50 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in Europe and around €20 billion by 2010.
—Graham Smith, Chairman of the Toyota Fund for Europe
Toyota Motor Europe (TE) established the Toyota Fund for Europe in 2002 to lead and partner with NGOs on local community activities that support environmental protection, technical education and road safety. The Fund has just launched a dedicated website, www.toyotafund.eu, which invites European NGOs to nominate activities and request funding on projects of shared community concern.
Resources
EcoDriving workshop website
September 21, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: fred schumacher | September 21, 2008 at 07:17 AM
An interesting approach,
Toyota will be associated with all things efficient, green and good. This must be worth something to their advertising profile and Co cred.
Toyota seem to be running their own race.
Posted by: arnold | September 21, 2008 at 08:37 PM
During the 2000 UK fuel protests when there was no petrol available for a week, I drove by accelerating gently and slipping the clutch to coast well before each junction. Fuel consumption halved.
Posted by: Emphyrio | September 24, 2008 at 02:20 AM
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Ecodriving is the quickest, least costly way to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Out of necessity, I've practiced it for 30 years.
For many years, before I retired from farming, my life situation caused me to drive 60,000 miles per year, and even when fuel was cheap, it still ended up being my biggest expense. (I've driven mainly high mileage used cars, so my cost of owning and maintaining a vehicle tended to be around 5 cents per mile.)
The techniques of ecodriving are the same ones I developed myself, and I can confirm they work. They also make your car last longer. I've driven a lot of cars past 250,000 miles, and two of them past 300,000, with remarkably few repairs.