How to calculate your

automobiles average/mileage -
mpg, kpl(kmpl), fuel economy
By now all of us are reeling under the pressure of high gas prices. Many are
trading in their gas guzzling SUV's for smaller compact cars or ditching them
altogether in favor of public transportation. This has prompted folks to ask the
long forgotton question of what is the average I get out of my automobile.
In the past most of the folks were content with knowing how much it cost to fill
up the tank but this is not the true measure of what average your automobile
gives. In this article I'll show you how to calculate the average mpg you get from
your automobile.
For those who don't know, mpg stands for miles per gallon. It can very well be
kpl - kilometers per liter in some parts of the world. Basically mpg or kpl is a unit
of measurement that says how many units of distance you've travelled for each
unit of fuel spent. It's simply an average of the fuel you've spent while driving
your automobile, car, SUV, motorcycle, etc.
Before you can calculate the average mpg of your vehicle, you'll need to
completely fill up your automobiles gas tank. This is the base line. When you fill
up the tank take note of the odometer reading. For our example, we'll assume
you filled up on Sunday while the odometer was showing a reading of 44786
miles.
Now go about your regular schedule, driving to work, etc. When it's time to fill
her up again, fill the tank completely again. This time, as before take note of the
odometer reading. Do also take note of the gallons you filled in the tank. For our
example, we'll assume that you filled up the following weekend, the odometer
was reading 45107 miles & you filled in 11.25 gallons of gas.
Now we have the necessary data to calculate the average of our automobile.
You might need a calculator handy to perform the following calculations.
Step 1
Take the second odometer reading & subtract it from the first.
45107 - 44786 = 321
Step 2
Divide the result from Step 1 by the gallons you needed to fill her up with.
321 / 11.25 = 28.53
This is the average mpg of your automobile.
The final result is that your average mpg was 28.53 or the efficiency of your
automobile was 28.53 mpg.
If you live in some part of the world where gas is not accounted for in gallons or
possibly you don't account for distance in miles but say in kilometers, the
calculation remains the same. Do all the calculations as before but in your final
result replace the "m" with the unit of measurement you use for distance &
replace the "g" with the unit of measurement you use for fuel.
For example
You record distances in kilometers & you buy fuel in liters, your calculation
remains the same but when saying your results you'll say kpl instead of mpg.
It is important to check the average fuel consumption of your car, SUV or
motorcycle cause it can show you a pattern over a period of time which can help
you save money on gas. For example, in traffic you might waste more fuel &
possibly change your commute times. Or maybe before you buy that economy
car you can check to see how much you could possibly save & then calculate
the potential savings of buying that new car.
With the moral responsibility of cutting fossil fuel usage, knowing how to
calculate your automobiles efficiency is one step towards being educated &
driving more efficiently.
To convert mpg to kpl multiply your miles per gallon(mpg) with 0.4251
Example:25 mpg = 0.4251 * 25 = 10.627 kpl
Similarly to convert kpl to mpg multiply your kilometers per liter(kpl) with 2.353
Example:10 kpl = 2.353 * 10 = 23.53 mpg
Note:Above calculations are approximations only, please refer to standards
documentation for reliable results.
 How to
Calculate Your
Car's Fuel
Consumption


BY KRISTEN HALL-GEISLER
UP NEXT

There are two ways to measure your car's fuel

economy: miles per gallon (mpg) and gallons per
100 miles (g/100m). Do you know how to
calculate both of these figures?
(JAMES BREY/GETTY IMAGES)
If you look up your car's fuel economy on
the Environmental Protection Agency's
Web site, you can find the official rating for
your car -- as long as it was built after
1984. But the official rating probably isn't
your very own actual fuel economy.
The EPA puts cars on rollers in a lab and
runs them through a very specific set of
tests. You, on the other hand, drive like a
maniac. Don't deny it.
There are two ways to gauge your vehicle's
fuel economy: miles per gallon (mpg),
which is probably the most common way
to phrase it in the good ol' US of A, and
gallons per 100 miles (g/100m) which is all
newfangled and Euro-style -- sort of like
the Daft Punk of fuel economy. It's also a
much easier way to compare fuel
consumption between two different
vehicles. Here's how to calculate either.
Miles per Gallon:
 Next time you fill the tank, note the

mileage on the odometer, or simply

reset the trip odometer to zero.
 Drive.

 When you fill the tank again, note how

many miles you've driven. Let's say

 you're in a Lamborghini Murcielago and
you drove 300 miles. Or more likely,
you're in a Geo Metro with a three-
cylinder engine and drove 400 miles.
 Now look at the receipt (or the gas
pump, if you're still at the station and
reading this how-to on a mobile device)
to see how many gallons of fuel you
put in the tank. The Lambo holds 24
gallons and the Metro holds 10.6
gallons; we'll assume you drove until it
was completely empty.
 The formula is right there in the
terminology: miles per gallon. Take the
miles driven in the Lamborghini (300)
and divide by the number of gallons
you added to the tank (24) to get the
miles per gallon. That's 12.5 mpg, by
the way. The Geo Metro example works
 out as 400 miles divided by 10.6 gallons
= 37.7 mpg.
Bam! You got your miles per gallons right
there, math ninjas. And now that you know
how to calculate your car's specific mpg,
you can reverse that business and find
your gallons per hundred miles.
Gallons per 100 Miles:
 First, figure out how many gallons of

gas you use in one mile by finding the

reciprocal of your car's mpg. You were
worried, weren't you? Thought you'd
have to remember what the heck a
reciprocal was all on your own? Relax.
It's just dividing one by the number in
question -- in this case, the number in
question is your car's miles per gallon.
So, using the Lamborghini example
 above, it's 1 divided by 12.5 and for the
Geo Metro, it's 1 divided by 37.7.
 The answer is your car's gallons per

mile. So, that's .08 for the Lamborghini

and .026 for the Metro.
 Multiply that number by 100, and

you've just found your gallons per one

hundred miles! It takes 8 gallons to
drive 100 miles in the Murcielago and
2.6 gallons to drive the same distance
in the Metro.
Quick Tip: The EPA is adopting the gallons
per 100 miles model, so you're going to
see this number listed near the miles per
gallon rating on every window sticker if
you're car shopping in the near future.
Author's Note: How to Calculate Your Car's Fuel Consumption

I realized in writing this that I had never

calculated my car's fuel consumption. I
know that I fill up every 250 miles or so,
and that at my last fill-up, I purchased
12.38 gallons of gas (the receipt was still
stuffed in the console cubbyhole). So that's
250 miles divided by 12.38 gallons, for a
kind of sad 20.19 mpg average. According
to the EPA, the combined score for my car
was supposed to be 21 mpg, so I'm a little
low. They also have the average user's
mpg, which is 26.9 mpg. I'm way below
that, too, which says a lot about my driving
-- maybe.
They didn't rate gallons per 100 miles in
2005, so I'm on my own here. But if I take
the reciprocal of my mpg (1 divided by
20.19), I get .049. Multiply that number by
100, and that's 4.9 gallons per one
hundred miles (g/100m), which again isn't
very great. All right, fine. Slower starts from
red lights for me from now on.
Related Articles

 Fuel Economy
 How to Use a Pizza Pie Tin to Improve
Fuel Economy
 A Driver's Guide to Fuel Economy
 How EPA Fuel-Economy Testing Works
Sources

 Allen, Mike. "Why We Should Measure

by Gallons per Mile, Not Miles per
Gallon." Popular Mechanics. Oct. 1,
2009. (July 24, 2013)
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars
/news/4324986
 Chang, Richard S. "The Illusion of Miles
Per Gallon." The New York Times. June
20, 2008. (Aug. 9, 2013)
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/
06/20/the-illusion-of-miles-per-gallon/
How to calculate fuel economy
and usage
Manufacturers give a fuel economy figure for new cars in litres per 100km for
urban, extra urban (i.e. higher speeds) and combined (a mixture of the two).
This number is determined via a standardised test which, unfortunately, bears
very little resemblance to the type of driving the vast majority of people do. If a
vehicle you are looking at purchasing has an indicated fuel economy of
8l/100km, everyday driving is probably more likely to be around 10l/100km
(this is my experience, after driving and reviewing over 400 cars since 2007).
However, the manufacturer-supplied figures are good for comparing between
models, just not calculating what your expected fuel costs will be.

Calculation for fuel efficiency

(realistic)
Fuel efficiency can be reported in litres per 100km or kilometers per litre (and
similarly using miles and gallons).

Litres per 100km fuel economy calculator

Divide the litres it took to refill the tank by the distance travelled and multiply
by 100.
e.g. 60 litres / 800km * 100 = 7.5 litres per 100km (expressed 7.5l/100km)

Litres per 100km

Enter in both figures after you've filled up your vehicle

Number of litres to fill up*

Number of km driven since last fill*

Litres per 100km

Kilometres per litre fuel economy
calculator
Divide the kilometres travelled by the amount of litres it took to refill the tank.
e.g. 800km / 60 litres = 13.3km per litre

Kilometres per litre

Enter in the number of kilometres you traveled and the number of litres it took to fill
up your vehicle

Kilometres*

Litres*

Kilometres per litre

Keeping it accurate
You can do this every time you fill your fuel tank if you want create a long-term
record of your fuel usage. Write your mileage down (keep a notebook in your
glovebox). Drive normally until your fuel tank’s fuel light comes on, then fill up.
It’s not good to run your fuel tank all the way empty because there is usually
residue in the bottom of the fuel tank and it can get sucked into the fuel filter.
Also, you risk running out at an inconvenient time.
If you’ve waited until the tank is fairly empty until you refill you will get a good
general representation of your fuel usage. Bear in mind that as the tank
becomes emptier, the vehicle becomes lighter and therefore (all other things
being equal) should get slightly better fuel economy. However, if you usually
fill up when you get down to one-third full, that will represent your normal
usage and therefore you should do that while you are measuring.
When you fill up, it helps to choose the same petrol station and same pump
because pumps have a slight natural variation. It also helps if it’s a similar
temperature and atmospheric pressure to reduce any effects of the weather
on the fuel (fuel is stored underground, usually at a constant temperature, to
help avoid this situation).
Price per kilometre
You can take the cost for your fuel per tank and divide it by the kilometres
driven to find out your fuel cost per kilometre.
e.g. $130 / 800km = $0.16 per kilometre. This is not your total cost per
kilometre, though, as you will have to add on RUC if it’s a diesel, the fixed
costs for your insurance and registration, the variable costs of maintenance
(e.g. new tyres), the gradual cost of the depreciation of the vehicle, and your
WoF if it’s more than 3 years old.
If you want to reduce your price per kilometre check out our fuel economy tips –
easy ways you can probably save up to 30% on your fuel bill.

Manufacturer calculations for fuel

efficiency
Manufacturers use a standardised driving cycle to determine fuel consumption.
This is usually simulated rather than driving on an actual road, and contains
periods of acceleration under load, coasting and idling.

Comparing between manufacturers

You can compare between many vehicles’ ‘official’ fuel economy figures using
the EECA Energywise website.

Calculating fuel economy for

electric vehicles
If the vehicle is fully electric (i.e. plug-in EV) then it is best to calculate for
kilowatt hours per 100km. If you recharge your car at a commercial station
then you can simply calculate how much it costs between fills.
A detailed description of a more accurate equation accounting for
transmission loss and battery inefficiency is here.