AAA questions claimed fuel consumption rates – Are consumers being misled?

The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) finds that consumers need to be wary of claimed fuel consumption rates and therefore range of new vehicles – and all fuel type vehicles are guilty.

The AAA has had access to over 150 Petrol, Diesel and Hybrid vehicles since they commenced their Commonwealth funded program 3 years ago. Add to that another 15 Battery Electric cars (BEV’s) have been tested more recently. What they found is that over 3/4 of them use more fuel than the manufacturers claim.

The overall winner (or loser in this case) of the greatest variation in claimed vs “real-world” remains the Mazda 2. Mazda lab testing claimed a fuel consumption of 5.0 litres/100km but the best the AAA could achieve was 6.8 litres/100km, a substantial variation of 35%.

By “real-world” the AAA put the vehicles through what they consider normal driving conditions experienced by Australian drivers and is a mix of city, rural and highway driving. It is an attempt to replicate what Australian drivers experience day to day and it should match or be fairly close to the claims made on energy consumption stickers and in the glossy brochures designed to entice buyers to purchase a certain vehicle over another.

AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley said: “Now more than ever, it’s critical that Australian consumers know exactly how much fuel a car will actually use, how much they will cost to run, or how far they will go on a single charge”

In the most recent batch of tests the GWM Haval Jolion Hybrid recorded the largest variation between real-world and lab performance with a 27% variation (6.5L/100km compared to 5.1L/100km).

The Jolion wasn’t the only small SUV to raise the ire of testers with the Audi Q5 (mild hybrid) and the GWM Haval H6 Hybrid both registering a 19% variance.

EV’s are not exempt from being accused of gilding the lily when it comes to economy with the BYD Dolphin falling short by a substantial 24%, registering a real-world range of 313 km against a claim of 410 km.

In contrast the Kia EV 5 was only 3% away from the manufacturers claim of 555 km range.

As more and more consumers flock to EV’s due to the ongoing issues in the middle east, it is crucial that they can rely on claimed range as they consider a move to a completely new vehicle type over what has been a familiar propulsion system for many decades.

Mr Bradley said: “These results give motorists wanting to make the switch to an EV guidance that can help them make a purchase with confidence. “Our polling shows 60 per cent of people identifying as likely EV buyers say range anxiety is the factor stopping them from choosing an EV, so giving them independent information on real-world battery range tells them which cars perform best, so they can worry less about running out of charge.”

Other vehicles in the most recent test batch that seem to be more accurate than others are the Toyota Landcruiser 300 at only 4% and the Ford Toureo at a 5% variation.

It is worth checking out the AAA testing website as it gives a breakdown of each vehicle alongside the conditions in which each vehicle was tested including a map of the route utilised on the test.