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About

Where these figures come from, and what they do and do not tell you.

Where the figures come from

Every number on this site comes from the Australian Government’s Green Vehicle Guide, run by the Department of Infrastructure and Transport. It is the same data behind the fuel consumption label on the windscreen of every new car sold here. We add no figures of our own.

How to read them

Australia measures fuel use in litres per 100km, where lower is better. A car at 6 L/100km uses less fuel than one at 9. This is the opposite direction to the American MPG figures you may have seen, where higher is better.

Figures come from a standardised laboratory test, so every car is measured the same way. That makes them reliable for comparing one car against another, and unreliable as a promise of what you will get. Your own consumption depends on traffic, load, tyre pressure, servicing and how you drive.

Running costs assume 14,000km a year at recent average fuel prices.

Cars sold before 2004

Older cars were measured on a different test, which reported city and highway figures and no combined number. We show those cars, because people still own them and still want the figures, but they cannot be compared with newer cars and we leave them out of our rankings.

Electric cars

An electric car has no litres-per-100km figure, because it burns no fuel. We show its electricity use and its range instead. Where we rank cars against each other we use what they cost to run for a year, which is measured for every car regardless of what it runs on.

Independence

Fuel Facts is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Australian Government. Data is reproduced with attribution.