Charging your phone in the car is bad for fuel economy

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Has this ever happened to you? You forget to charge your phone at home, so you just plug it into your car. A new study finds there are environmental and financial consequences that come with that convenience.

When you plug your phone into a USB port, you’re getting a little less mileage from each gallon of fuel than you would be without the phone charging, according to work done by a retired engineering executive at General Motors.

That means you’re burning more gas and paying more to keep the tank filled. It’s not a lot when it’s one car, but adds up when you think about all the vehicles on the road.

“You get mini-vans and big SUVs with multiple seats in them and multiple USB ports cause the kids want to plug in their portable devices and people want to do the same,” says NEWS 1130 Automotive specialist Tim Dimopoulous.

“Although the study may have some merit, in the short term, you’ll probably see less USB connections and more wireless connections,” he adds.

Dimopoulos says having a wireless connection is probably burning a little bit more fuel than if the phone were not being charged at all.