Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the efficiency of a process that

converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier fuel into kinetic energy or work.
Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, which in turn may vary per application fuel
efficiency, especially fossil fuel power plants or industries dealing with combustion, such as
ammonia production during the Haber process.
In the context of transport, fuel economy is the energy efficiency of a particular vehicle, is
given as a ratio of distance travelled per unit of fuel consumed. Fuel economy is expressed in
miles per gallon (mpg) in the USA and usually also in the UK (imperial gallon);there is
sometimes confusion as the imperial gallon is 20% larger than the US gallon so that mpg
values are not directly comparable. In countries using the metric system fuel economy is
stated in kilometres per litre (km/L) in the Netherlands, Denmark and in several Latin
American or Asian countries such as India, Japan, South Korea, or as the reciprocal ratio,
"fuel consumption" in liters per 100 kilometers (L/100 km) in much of Europe, Canada, New
Zealand and Australia. Litres per mil are used in Norway and Sweden.
Fuel consumption is a more accurate measure of a vehicles performance because it is a linear
relationship while fuel economy leads to distortions in efficiency improvements.
Weight-specific efficiency (efficiency per unit weight) may be stated for freight, and
passenger-specific efficiency (vehicle efficiency per passenger).

Fuel efficiency of vehicles

The fuel efficiency of vehicles can be expressed in more ways:

Fuel consumption is the amount of fuel used per unit distance; for example, litres
per 100 kilometres (L/100 km). In this case, the lower the value, the more economic
a vehicle is (the less fuel it needs to travel a certain distance); this is the measure
generally used across Europe (except the UK, Denmark and The Netherlands - see
below), New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Also in Uruguay, Paraguay, Guatemala,
Colombia, China, and Madagascar.[citation needed], as also in post-Soviet space.

Fuel economy is the distance travelled per unit volume of fuel used; for example,
kilometres per litre (km/L) or miles per gallon (MPG), where 1 MPG (imperial)
0.354006 km/L. In this case, the higher the value, the more economic a vehicle is (the
more distance it can travel with a certain volume of fuel). This measure is popular in
the USA and the UK (mpg), but in Europe, India, Japan, South Korea and Latin
America the metric unit km/L is used instead.

Converting from mpg or to L/100 km (or vice versa) involves the use of the reciprocal
function, which is not distributive. Therefore, the average of two fuel economy numbers
gives different values if those units are used, because one of the functions is reciprocal, thus
not linear. If two people calculate the fuel economy average of two groups of cars with
different units, the group with better fuel economy may be one or the other. However, from
the point of energy used as a shared method of measure, the result shall be the same in both
the cases.

The formula for converting to miles per US gallon (exactly 3.785411784 L) from L/100 km is
, where
formula is

is value of L/100 km. For miles per Imperial gallon (exactly 4.54609 L) the
.

In parts of Europe, the two standard measuring cycles for "litre/100 km" value are "urban"
traffic with speeds up to 50 km/h from a cold start, and then "extra urban" travel at various
speeds up to 120 km/h which follows the urban test. A combined figure is also quoted
showing the total fuel consumed in divided by the total distance traveled in both tests. A
reasonably modern European supermini and many mid-size cars, including station wagons,
may manage motorway travel at 5 L/100 km (47 mpg US/56 mpg imp) or 6.5 L/100 km in
city traffic (36 mpg US/43 mpg imp), with carbon dioxide emissions of around 140 g/km.
An average North American mid-size car travels 21 mpg (US) (11 L/100 km) city, 27 mpg
(US) (9 L/100 km) highway; a full-size SUV usually travels 13 mpg (US) (18 L/100 km) city
and 16 mpg (US) (15 L/100 km) highway. Pickup trucks vary considerably; whereas a 4
cylinder-engined light pickup can achieve 28 mpg (8 L/100 km), a V8 full-size pickup with
extended cabin only travels 13 mpg (US) (18 L/100 km) city and 15 mpg (US) (15 L/100 km)
highway.
The average fuel economy is higher in Europe due to the higher cost of fuel. In the UK, a
gallon of gas without tax would cost US$1.97, but with taxes cost US$6.06 in 2005. The
average cost in the United States was US$2.61. Consumers prefer "muscle cars" but choose
more fuel efficient ones when gas prices increase.[3]
European-built cars are generally more fuel-efficient than US vehicles. While Europe has
many higher efficiency diesel cars, European gasoline vehicles are on average also more
efficient than gasoline-powered vehicles in the USA. Most European vehicles cited in the CSI
study run on diesel engines, which tend to achieve greater fuel efficiency than gas engines.
Selling those cars in the United States is difficult because of emission standards, notes Walter
McManus, a fuel economy expert at the University of Michigan Transportation Research
Institute. "For the most part, European diesels dont meet U.S. emission standards",
McManus said in 2007. Another reason why many European models are not marketed in the
United States is that labor unions object to having the big 3 import any new foreign built
models regardless of fuel economy while laying off workers at home.[4]
An example of European cars' capabilities of fuel economy is the microcar Smart Fortwo cdi,
which can achieve up to 3.4 l/100 km (69.2 mpg US) using a turbocharged three-cylinder
41 bhp (30 kW) Diesel engine. The Fortwo is produced by Daimler AG and is currently only
sold by one company in the United States. Furthermore, the current (and to date already 10
year old) world record in fuel economy of production cars is held by the Volkswagen Group,
with special production models (labeled "3L") of the Volkswagen Lupo and the Audi A2,
consuming as little as 3 L/100 km (94 mpg-imp; 78 mpg-US).[5]
Diesel engines generally achieve greater fuel efficiency than petrol (gasoline) engines.
Passenger car diesel engines have energy efficiency of up to 41% but more typically 30%,
and petrol engines of up to 37.3%, but more typically 20%. That is one of the reasons why
diesels have better fuel efficiency than equivalent petrol cars. A common margin is 25%
more miles per gallon for an efficient turbodiesel.

For example, the current model Skoda Octavia, using Volkswagen engines, has a combined
European fuel efficiency of 41.3 mpg for the 105 bhp (78 kW) petrol engine and 52.3 mpg
for the 105 bhp (78 kW) and heavier diesel engine. The higher compression ratio is
helpful in raising the energy efficiency, but diesel fuel also contains approximately 10% more
energy per unit volume than gasoline which contributes to the reduced fuel consumption for a
given power output.
In 2002, the United States had 85,174,776 trucks, and averaged 13.5 miles per US gallon
(17.4 L/100 km; 16.2 mpg-imp). Large trucks, over 33,000 pounds (15,000 kg), averaged 5.7
miles per US gallon (41 L/100 km; 6.8 mpg-imp).[6]