Navigate more sustainably and optimize for fuel savings with eco-friendly routing

November 2022

Mohit Moondra
Product Manager

Eco-friendly routing is now available to developers in Preview. Improving fuel efficiency can help lower your fleet’s fuel/energy usage and CO2 emissions. Starting today, you’ll have the option to enable eco-friendly routing in your web and mobile experiences. 

Eco-friendly routing is a feature of the new Routes API. When you enable eco-friendly routing, you can select the engine type along with other factors such as real-time traffic and road conditions to calculate the eco-friendly route. By default, the Routes API returns a default route, meaning a route without factoring in fuel or energy-efficiency. Now, in addition to the default route in the response, you will also get an eco-friendly route showing the most fuel or energy efficient route based on your vehicle's engine type.
A representative mock up that shows the backend options when enabling eco-friendly routing
How Google Maps Platform estimates fuel efficiency

The Routes API estimates fuel and energy efficiency using insights from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and data from the European Environment Agency. This calculation includes factors that affect your fuel and energy usage and CO2 emissions, such as:

  • Average fuel or energy consumption based on regionally representative vehicles per engine type (petrol or gas, diesel, hybrid, or electric)
  • Steepness of hills on your route
  • Stop-and-go traffic patterns
  • Types of roads (such as local roads or highways)

The Routes API returns the most fuel or energy-efficient route when one can be found with minimal impact on the arrival time. In cases where fuel or energy savings are too small or increase driving time significantly, the API shows relative fuel or energy savings between routes to help your drivers decide which route to take.
A representative mock up that shows an eco-friendly route, along with estimated fuel savings
More efficient routes can mean increased driver efficiency, less travel time, and lower fuel consumption. For example, delivery companies or ridesharing companies can use eco-friendly routes to measure estimated fuel consumption and savings for a single trip, multiple trips, or even across their entire fleet to improve their business performance. Eco-friendly routing is available wherever it’s available on Google Maps–and we’re continuing to expand coverage. To get started with eco-friendly routing and Routes API, check out the documentation. 

For more information on Google Maps Platform, visit our website.