Finance platform MNY (mny.com.au) has compiled a report for buyers unveiling the most and least fuel-efficient cars on Australian roads by engine type, body type, price, year and make.
The analysis has calculated that the Hyundai Ioniq is the most fuel and energy-efficient EV and PHEV, while the Toyota Corolla Cross is the most fuel-efficient petrol car. Meanwhile, the most fuel-efficient SUV is the Honda ZR-V petrol hybrid.
The research was conducted as part of the launch of MNY’s free car fuel-usage comparison platform, which allows motorists to compare vehicles by engine type, price range, brand, body type, year, fuel type or any combination of those.
Methodology
MNY compared 652 2019-2023 model cars from 38 brands, with reliable fuel efficiency data and sufficient representation on Australian roads for our analysis. The analysis was also based on the assumption that each car travels 14,000 km a year.
For petrol cars, it calculated the annual fuel consumption based on the type of fuel and its consumption per kilometre.
For hybrid cars, it made a cost estimate by calculating combined petrol usage (L/100 km) and electricity usage (kW/100 km).
For EVs, it considered the electric battery capacity and the cost of electricity for homeowners and at public charging stations, plus checked with Rollin’ Car Insurance, Finder, and Canstar Blue.
“If you go under the hood of our comparison platform, we feed it with thousands of data points sourced from public and private institutions. If there were any discrepancies in our early analysis, we cross checked those figures against several sources to come up with the most robust estimate,”MNY Business Analyst Sabina Khanusiak says.
“We also assessed fuel and electricity prices by each state and territory, too. That means we didn’t just rely on a generic fuel-efficiency performance,” she says.
Top 10 fuel efficient cars
Hands down, electric cars are the most fuel-efficient, even when taking into account electricity charging costs, which means those drivers will have the lowest annual power costs says MNY.
A surprising finding is that it wasn’t a 2023 model that came on top, nor the one with the highest base price. The 2019 Hyundai Ioniq EV sedan topped the chart with an annual fuel cost of just $491. Not bad for a base price of $36,630 for this plug-in electric vehicle.
The 2023 Tesla Model 3 came in second, with an annual running cost of $554. The BMW i3 EV sedan came in third, with $575 in annual power costs. Only one SUV made the top 10 list – the MG ZS EV, in ninth place.
Least thirsty by fuel type
What motorists put into their fuel tank matters. Based on annual fuel costs for travelling an average of 14,000 km, MNY calculated the fuel-efficiency winners by car fuel type, and can be found here.
Hyundai and Toyota take out two top spots on the list of six. The Ioniq tops the list of EVs and PHEVs while Toyota tops both petrol and petrol hybrid models. The best fuel costs across these six categories range from $491 for a pure electric car to $1,678 for a diesel hybrid.
Surprisingly, diesel hybrids tend to have higher average fuel costs than their pure-diesel counterparts. They are also usually bulkier and heavier, made by premium brands such as Land Rover, Jaguar and BMW, so appeal to customers with an eye on performance over fuel economy.
MNY found a large proportion of vehicles have a price-to-fuel ratio between 10 and 20, and a strong majority have ratios between 10 and 40. There are also some vehicles with ratios as low as 7 or 8. This is the case when the car itself is inexpensive, but it has poor fuel efficiency and requires the owner to spend a lot on petrol each year.
Shape and size matters
MNY unpacked the data to find out what factors affect annual fuel costs. Common car body styles ranked high. Hatches and sedans had the lowest average annual fuel costs because they were smaller and more aerodynamic, while coupes and convertibles averaged the highest. Convertibles had almost double the average yearly fuel cost of a hatch. (That said, some of the newest SUVs feature advanced technology or a smaller engine than many sedans, and those SUVs require less fuel than some sedans.)
However, the 2023 BMW Z4 petrol and 2023 BMW 2 series petrol took the top ranking for convertible and coupe categories achieving fuel efficiencies of 7.8L/100 km and 9.7L/100 km respectively.
10 least fuel-efficient cars
MNY also ranked the 10 least fuel-efficient car models. Seven out of 10 cars on the list have six-figure base prices, which highlights that high-end vehicles with powerful engines, as well as vehicles designed for luxury rather than savings, do not prioritise fuel efficiency and require more petrol.
The least fuel-efficient is the 2023 BMW Alpina Wagon, followed by the 2021 Porsche Macan SUV and then the 2019 Lotus Evora GT 430 Coupe.
Notably, one affordable model makes the list: the $40,190 2022 Subaru BRZ Coupe, which ranks 10th in low fuel efficiency.
The full analysis can be found here https://mny.com.au/most-fuel-efficient-cars-in-australia/.
