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Australias top ten most fuel efficient vehicles

Australias top ten most fuel efficient vehicles Posted: 23/03/2012 By: Rory Deegan - Online Marketing Coordinator Comments: (5) Categories: | Automotive Industry News | Driving Tips | Car Review | Technology | Financial Tips | Environmental News

Youve been there before, staring at the pumps with the price going higher and higher all the while thinking to yourself; wasnt I here just yesterday? Just this week warnings have rippled all around Australia on the subject of fuel prices. In this environment the statistic of litres per 100km has been getting a lot more air time at the water cooler. With this, and a healthy curiosity towards the subject, we set out to discover what cars were capable of running on a mildly oily post-it note.

The trends
From the heady days of the model T when 18.7 litres per 100 km was considered a miracle of physics, things have come a long way. This said things didnt always improve. Vehicles like the statement screaming Hummer H1 is a case in point with a fuel economy of 22 litres per 100km. Despite this and other slight tangents, the general trend is one of improvement. Even bigger vehicles are now getting much more per litre with everything from mini hatches to the huge SUV/Utes posting big improvements. While big vehicles have seen improvements the real premier league of fuel efficiency is now made up of small sedan hybrids, micro sized electrics and diesel hatches.

The top 10
We created the top 10 list based on independently verified claims on litres per 100km. While this area is difficult to manage due to differing driving styles and needs, we have made every attempt to ensure fairness. As would be predicted the two electric cars came out on top. Both saved over a full litre of fuel more than their nearest competitors. While the two dont use conventional fuel, the research was based on equivalent testing from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The rest of the field shows how competitive things are becoming in the space. A number of hybrids are now struggling to stay in the mix. Along with this there is only one supplier (Honda) which has more than one vehicle in the top 10. Rank 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Model Litres per 100km Mitsubishi i-MiEV 2.1 Nissan Leaf 2.4 Ford WS Fiesta Econetic 3.7 Toyota Prius 3.9 Volvo C30 Drive 3.9

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Mini Cooper D Hardtop Fiat 500 Lexus CT 200h Honda Insight Honda Civic Hybrid

3.9 4.0 4.1 4.4 4.6

Conclusion
Its obvious that the most efficient cars available in Australia today are getting more and more out of a litre of fuel. This however, does not always translate into sales on the forecourt. The simple and undeniable fact is that the top ten do not sell very well in Australia. Not one car in this top ten has hit even the top 20 sellers in the Australian market. The reason remains straightforward. Australian drivers, on the whole, still prefer mid and large sized sedans and SUV/Utes. Add to that the fact that the cutting edge fuel technology adds a premium price tag to all ten of the above vehicles. From a sales perspective the end result is very marginal products which will take a long time to break into the mainstream. Check out the least fuel efficient cars on the Australian market.

What do you think of the top ten?

See the top ten selling cars of 2011.

Do you think these trends will continue?

Have you thought of one of these cars on a Novated Lease?

Please comment below. Add a comment Comments: Duncan said on 26/Mar/2012 10:36 AM The main reason that people con't buy these fuel efficient cars is cost. If you work out the price to own / run the car for 3 years (a common time period these days) then you still have not even broken even on overall cost compared to a similar "non-green" car. I'd love to be proven wrong and things may have changed since I worked it all out late last year but extra cost has to be worth while. I am looking forward to it looking better next time we buy a car. Dnx Craig said on 03/Apr/2012 10:01 AM

Hi, Toyota about to release another prius, called prius c which will start from $23,990. The electric cars should be compared with Oz electricity prices in mind, but if owner has solar cells, this will be cheaper. Some of these cars in list are manual versions, not prefered by some drivers. Oz petrol buyer behaviour is such that we will cross the road/do a u turn to save a few cents at another bowser. The BIG cars in Oz are now $30-40K. I can see why diesel SUVs are popular. My daily commute is shared with mostly single occupant cars. The market is there for an organised car pooling scheme, and buyers wanting new $15-25K cars with low fuel use. I'm seeing more i20s, Mazda2s, Yaris, Fiestas, Polos, etc . Melbourne prices over $1.50/litre this week. Perhaps couples/famillies will adopt the one big & one little car 'policy' or we hire big cars when we need one.......but nothing new in that. I would like to see a complete list of cars less than 7litres/100kms. cheers Alan said on 05/Apr/2012 2:38 AM Duncan is on the money. This is little more than a novelty comment. Any fleet manager worth his money would be talking about whole of life cost. If these vehicles have a higher premium cost, higher maintenance cost, excessive downtime because of maintenance issues, and consequently a lower resale cost because of the excessive maintenance and downtime much of the fuel savings are lost and they may in fact be a financial trap. As an example I can recall a particular truck model which used less fuel than its competitors and cost about $5000 less, but required a $15,000 engine build at 80,000 km; the manufacturer had to pull it off the market. Toby said on 07/Aug/2012 11:58 AM What about the Golf Bluemotion? This one is priced pretty low, and is rated for low fuel consumption. If you tested the fuel consumption to be higher, and excluded it on that basis, maybe that's worth another article. shayne said on 19/Sep/2012 9:43 AM If the Gov't would overhaul the registration CTP system so it's fair, then these cars would be a popular choice. I can afford two cars, one for working/holidays etc.- so a mid-large size with towing power. I'd also like a small car for commuting, general running around. What I can't afford is two greenslips, rego and insurance - and, I can only drive one at a time. This is the real problem. Subscribe to Fleet Beat Blog Roll

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