Google maps eating up battery

From the time I have uninstalled Google my tracks app , Google maps has taken its role of eating up battery.

I have not found a solution for this yet. Have turned off location services as of now. Will update if I find a solution to this.

Update : I had turned of location services and merely few hours, I see that my phone's battery consumption has considerably gone down. The battery usage chart is now almost flat.

Update : So, once the location services are off, I can no longer use google now. Basically, google now does not show cards on itself anymore, I have to search for things. As is, it showed nothing but weather and travel route to home, so the cards not being there does not matter.