What’s on the Fuel Efficiency poster
A 8-row table: Factor · Effect.
Roughly ordered by size of effect.
- Speed above ~60 mph — Large — drag rises with the square of speed
- Harsh acceleration and braking — Large
- Underinflated tyres — Up to 3%
- Roof box or bars — Up to 20% at speed
- Air conditioning — 5–10% at low speed
- Excess weight — ~1% per 25 kg
- Short cold journeys — Large — worst efficiency
- Fuel additives — Negligible
Remove roof bars when not in use. The drag penalty at motorway speed is larger than almost anything else on this list.
Questions about the Fuel Efficiency poster
- What’s on the Fuel Efficiency poster?
- A 8-row table: Factor · Effect. Roughly ordered by size of effect. Speed above ~60 mph — Large — drag rises with the square of speed; Harsh acceleration and braking — Large; Underinflated tyres — Up to 3%; Roof box or bars — Up to 20% at speed; Air conditioning — 5–10% at low speed; Excess weight — ~1% per 25 kg; Short cold journeys — Large — worst efficiency; Fuel additives — Negligible. Remove roof bars when not in use. The drag penalty at motorway speed is larger than almost anything else on this list.
- Who is the Fuel Efficiency poster for?
- Fuel Efficiency belongs to the Practical skills section rather than to a school year, because life skills is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning the car can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Fuel Efficiency poster?
- Speed and driving style dominate. Most fuel-saving gadgets do nothing. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Fuel Efficiency belongs on the wall where that life skills work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Fuel Efficiency?
- After an Accident, Breaking Down and Buying a Used Car sit alongside Fuel Efficiency in the Practical skills section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.After an AccidentBreaking DownBuying a Used Car
- Is the Fuel Efficiency poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Fuel Efficiency downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Practical skills section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Fuel Efficiency poster print at?
- Fuel Efficiency is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Fuel Efficiency loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Fuel Efficiency on the same wall.
Browse every Practical skills poster, or start from the full catalogue.