Fuel economy of common cars

Popular cars, SUVs and pickups with their official combined fuel economy shown in all four units side by side. The figure in bold is the one the car's own market publishes; the other three are computed from it with the exact constants the converters use. American rows are EPA combined ratings in US gallons. British rows are WLTP combined figures in imperial gallons. European rows are WLTP combined figures in L/100km.

These are approximate figures for a common trim in a recent model year. Ratings change with engine, drivetrain, wheel size and model year, sometimes by several mpg within one model, so treat this table as a sense of scale and check the spec sheet of the exact car you are looking at. Note too that the tests differ: a WLTP figure is not directly comparable with an EPA one even after conversion, for reasons the ratings guide explains.

The mpg (UK) column is always 20.1% above the mpg (US) column for the same row, because the imperial gallon holds 20.095% more fuel. That is a unit difference, not a difference between cars, and it is the reason a Toyota Yaris Hybrid at 68 mpg in a British review and the same car at around 4.0 L/100km in a French one are the same efficiency.

The hybrid rows sit far apart from their petrol equivalents in L/100km terms but closer in mpg terms, which is the reciprocal scale compressing the efficient end. A RAV4 at 30 mpg and a RAV4 Hybrid at 39 look nine mpg apart; in fuel per distance they are 7.84 and 6.03 L/100km, and the hybrid uses 23% less fuel. The MPG or L/100km guide explains why the second framing is the honest one.

Real-world figures for every car here will be lower than the official ones, by a small margin for the EPA rows and a larger one for WLTP. The real-world MPG guide gives the size of the gap and the MPG calculator measures your own.