The UK highway test is significantly different than US EPA and is not correlated to real world FE variables with a correction factor like the EPA test is. Itās basically what the US EPA test was up until the early 90ās.
This was not the UK highway test, so not sure what Which? test has to do with the regulations. They show % lower than advertised. Does BMW advertise different mileage in the UK and the US?
On average, hybrid cars were found to be 61 per cent less fuel-efficient than promised.
Which? said that their tests were tougher than the official ones, because they better represented real-world driving conditions.
Iām pretty sure they do as in US they will advertise EPA test figures and in UK it would be european test cycle (donāt remember whatās the acronym for it is). EPA and European tests are different, so the results would be different.
Even gallons are different
Iāve never heard of āwhichā before.
What a dumb name for a Consumer watchdog group. Using such a generic name will mean you get lost in searches.
Lets see, real driving in our City miles donāt match up to driving on a test track with preset cones for stop / go. Well duh. Also are their drivers pros at saving gas or just something off the street? They need a baseline for all cars that can be done and repeated precisely.
The emissions mention at the bottom, intrigues me. Is start /stop going to pollute more than running the engine for 60 seconds? Why do hybrids issue double the emissions?
Yeah, I guess so
Yes, BMW does āadvertiseā different fuel efficiency in the UK and US. The testing standards are completely different. Also the fuel economy rating is NOT SET BY THE OEM. It is set by the US EPA, and in the UK by the WLTP test. I am not sure which test that the article is referencingā¦that website looks like the National Enquirer and I have no interest in reading it in detail.
BMW 3 SERIES 330i Sport 4dr
Fuel Consumption - ICE
| EC Combined (mpg): | 47.9 |
|---|---|
| EC Extra Urban (mpg): | 56.5 |
| EC Urban (mpg): | 38.2 |
| WLTP - FC (l/100km) - Comb: | 6.6 |
| WLTP - FC (l/100km) - Comb - Max: | 6.9 |
| WLTP - FC (l/100km) - Comb - Min: | 6.5 |
| WLTP - FC (l/100km) - Extra High: | 6.4 |
| WLTP - FC (l/100km) - High: | 5.6 |
| WLTP - FC (l/100km) - Low: | 9.5 |
| WLTP - FC (l/100km) - Medium: | 6.6 |
| WLTP - MPG - Comb: | 43.5 |
| WLTP - MPG - Comb - Max: | 40.9 |
| WLTP - MPG - Comb - Min: | 43.5 |
| WLTP - MPG - Extra High: | 45.6 |
| WLTP - MPG - High: | 51.4 |
| WLTP - MPG - Low: | 30.4 |
| WLTP - MPG - Medium: | 43.5 |
US EPA:
1 US MPG = 1.201 UK MPG while 1 UK MPG is 0.8327 US MPG
As a engineer, I prefer my metrics in km/L or L/100Km
Yes, yes. No idea what I was thinking. Probably not thinking lol
Man the WLTP is crazy for PHEV cars. I was not familiar with WLTP, only the old NEDC from college.
US EPA:
Iāve always really liked MPGe, itās very easy to understand and allows electric or PHEV vehicles to be directly compared on the exact same footing in terms of energy efficiency.
EU WLTP for X5 PHEV:
Iāve been reading for 20 mins, Iām a mechanical engineer with a concentration in automotive powertrain and I still canāt understand how the EU/WLTP calculates these numbers for PHEVās. It appears to be very shady.
I am guessing that what this magazine did is basically calculate the MPGe, but they donāt mention the math anywhere so who knows. But looks like the WLTP is broken for PHEVās just like the NEDC was for all vehicles.
No worse than how the epa calculates mileage range for evs.
Isnāt it based on energy density? Makes sense to me. Although itās a relatively useless number for an EV.
No. They have a bunch of tests that can be done or you can do the standard tests and they slap a randomly selected 20% knock down factor that they never actually established a basis for. Iāll give you one guess which brand makes sure to do all the tests so they donāt get hit with a knock down, resulting in real world mileage thatās generally a good bit less than the rating and which brands get hit with the knockdown and then generating real world mileage that beats their epa numbers.
Itās almost like if you tune the vehicle specifically for the epa tests, you can get numbers that arenāt really real, but make you stand way out in the range game.
Iām not surprised these slipped through the cracks and/or are inaccurately reported lol.
What was the running joke about the Uk highway test by Jeremy Clarkson? Been a whileā¦or maybe he was making fun of EPA I forget.
Speaking of Clarkson, this topic was covered by Top Gear 12 years ago. They put a Prius and a BMW M3 on a racetrack and measured which one got better MPG. Spoiler alert: it was the M3.
Hybrids get a lot of their efficiency benefit from stop & go conditions. Most driving isnāt 100% highway or 100% city, so most hybrid owners get MPG numbers that theyāre happy with.
Most people, especially on Toyota and Hyundai hybrids, are going to get pretty close to the EPA numbers in real life. Top Gearās racetrack example illustrates why youāll always want to drive the right car for the job. If your commute is 300 miles of highway at 90mph, maybe you want a Diesel VW or Cayenne or something instead of the Prius.
Well itās settled then. Iām buying an M3 over a prius 
.
Disclaimer
This is satire.
You should. My M4 is saving the planet 
If I did buy anything it would be a M2CS.
We got rid of our Prius to make room for my 750i, and never looked back.