UK/European fuel consumption format difference

[wiganken1]

I notice in a question posted by member RJVB (I hope you don't mind me quoting you RJVB) that in France fuel consumption is measured in Litre/100km whilst in the UK we use miles/gallon. If I convert the UK mpg into metric, keeping things in the same order, we get kilometres/litre or km/l but in France it seems you switch things around and use l/100km. Is this how it is measured in France (and maybe other European countries except the UK)? I ask this because I keep my mpg records in both mpg and miles/litre formats and maybe I should be using l/100 miles instead of miles/litre. I need to stick with miles because UK cars measure miles and not kilometres. Not a very important question but it caught my attention.

[Ootohere]

I keep it simple as road distances in the UK are in miles and cars mieometers are in miles and fuel has not been sold in Imperial Gallons for generations.(4.456 litres)

So i fill up with litres of fuel and like to know how many miles to the litre. 630 miles and 63 litres is simples.

45 litre for 450 miles simple as well, easy enough if wanting to know the MPG from tank to divide litres by 4.546.

[rum4mo]

@wiganken1, I have always been under the impression that mainland Europe etc used ltr/100km to retain suitable "magnitude" of values on consumption - that is all.

[wiganken1]

OK. I was just wondering. Since I am in the UK I'll stick to using miles/gallon and miles/litre. Thanks for your responses.

[GeneralPurpose]

On 6/29/2018 at 19:08, Offski said:

I keep it simple as road distances in the UK are in miles and cars mieometers are in miles and fuel has not been sold in Imperial Gallons for generations.(4.456 litres)

 

Or...4.546 litres per gallon even. Typo, I know!

[wiganken1]

As you say " fuel has not been sold in Imperial Gallons for generations". I only use mpg because no one will know what I am talking about if I say "I get 10.8 miles/litre (49mpg) from my Fabia" and mpg is the only way to compare fuel consumption in the UK. In fact, thinking more about it, I don't need to keep miles/litre records at all now that I know it is not used anywhere else. At least something useful has come out me asking the question. As they say "talking to someone helps". Thanks to all.

[wiganken1]

P.S. I believe that since "fuel is dispensed in litres we should be using miles/litres but I know it ain't gonna happen. A shame really because I believe the metric system is a logical system of units and I like it but there you go. You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

[the_raz]

Also in Finland, fuel consumption is measured in l/100KM, so how many liters of fuel to I burn to drive 100 kilometers. The lower value the better (at least for the poor guy who pays for the fuel  )

[HopeImRight]

Simple. For example what is 4.9 litre per 100 km in mpg.

Answer. Divide 282 by 4.9. Bingo

[KenONeill]

Fuel burnt per unit distance is a silly measure because what most people want to know is "how far can I get on this volume (or value)?"

[brian245]

9 hours ago, KenONeill said:

Fuel burnt per unit distance is a silly measure because what most people want to know is "how far can I get on this volume (or value)?"

Agree 100%

 

[Gerrycan]

Having lived with both systems for near equal amounts of time (UK and Australia), I'll just say that you get used to it.

mpg made sense when I bought fuel in gallons in the UK but since you now buy fuel in litres then logically you should express consumption as miles/Litre

I am just as happy with L/100 or km/L, all of which are selectable display options on my Octavia.

 

5.6L/100km = 50mpg and my workable  'close enough is good enough' conversions are 5L/100 = 55mpg, 4.5L/100 = 60mpg but I only 'think' mpg when on Briskoda :( 

 

I know I'll get about 800 km out of a normal tank of fuel but I usually fill up when fuel costs locally dip by 30% (about every three weeks)  and I'll get at least 900km on a run. I always reset the trip to zero when I fill

 

 

Edited 7 July, 2018 by Gerrycan

[Scottk]

And then you go to the US and the gallon is different again!!