The effects of gear shift indicator usage on fuel efficiency of a motor vehicle

Abstract

The manner of gear shifting is one of the main factors affecting the fuel efficiency of motor vehicles. Potential savings resulted from optimized gear shifting led to introduction of gear shift indicators in passenger vehicles as an obligation from year 2012. The effects of gear shift indicators usage are still not studied enough. That was the motive for the authors to conduct the experiments to justify their usage, both from the economic and ecological standpoint. The presented results come from the tests conducted on FIAT 500L vehicle to determine the fuel consumption using the new European driving cycle, but for three different gear shift patterns: (1) as defined in UNECE Regulation No. 83, (2) as indicated by vehicle?s gear shift indicator, and (3) based on the average vehicle speed values collected from gear shift indicators of 35 passenger vehicles of different makes, types, and characteristics. Maximum difference in fuel consumption recorded in tests done using three different gear shift patterns is 18.7%.