Study of fuel consumption efficiency of vehicle type in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Road transportation is the dominant mode of transportation in Sri Lanka. The vehicular fleet in Sri Lanka is divided in to two categories as Petrol and Diesel. The highest expenditure in the country is spent for the imported gasoline. Studying of the fuel consumption rates for each and every vehicle type in the country is an essential need to forecast the expenditure for the fuel in future. Fuel consumption is the amount of fuel used per unit distance; litres per 100 kilometres (L/100 km). The study was conducted to survey the fuel efficiency of petrol and diesel vehicles in the whole country. The data for fuel consumption was recorded at selected fuel stations in each Executive engineers division to cover whole country. The data was collected from 6.00am to 6.00pm. Consumption was recorded from each vehicle type. The results revealed that the petrol vehicles; i.e motor cycles and three wheelers are running with their highest fuel efficiency in North Central Province while cars, jeeps and passenger vans have the highest fuel efficiency in North Western. The lowest fuel efficiency for petrol vehicles is obtained in Uva Province and in Eastern Province except for Motor Cycles. When considered diesel vehicles the highest fuel efficiency is in North Western Province except for buses, pickups and trucks. Estimation of fuel efficiency with respect to district and EE division were estimated. Study shows that fuel efficiency can be used to evaluate the condition of road network within the district or EE division.