MPG stands for “miles per gallon”. It is one of the popular ways of measuring the fuel economy of vehicles in countries like US and UK. Value of MPG shows how much miles a vehicle can run for each 1 gallon of gasoline or fuel used. However, gallon of US differs to that in UK. MPG of UK is also known as Imperial MPG. In most of the other countries, kmpl (kilometers per liter) is also the popular and standard form of measuring fuel economy.
Some of the conversions of MPG are given below:
1 US MPG = 1.20095 Imperial MPG
1 US Gallon = 3.78541 Liter
1 US MPG = 0.4251 kmpl
For the purpose of this website, when we write just MPG, it shall refer to US MPG. For UK based MPG, we shall denote it with MPG (imperial). MPG is also often referred as “gas mileage”. There are various agencies which measures or accredit gas mileage of an vehicle. One such official institute in USA is U.S. Environmental Protection Agency which has laboratory facilities to test, research MPG of vehicles. It also issues guidelines for testing the same. Auto Manufacturers can submit their own test results based on guidelines. India has ARAI who does such testing of mileage, however, it reports in kmpl. There are other various agencies across world which does testing and provides value of MPG or mileage of auto vehicles.
What affects MPG or gas mileage?
Though a new vehicle comes with specified capacity and performance, the actual fuel performance of the vehicle is determined by actual working condition where that vehicle is operated. Some of the major factors that affects or determines the MPG or fuel economy of an vehicle includes:
- Driving or handling of vehicle by the operator/driver/rider
- Geography of the region where vehicle is driven
- Degree of traffic congestion in road
- Condition of the vehicle (determined by maintenance or servicing)
- Use of other services in vehicle that may require fuel (for e.g. Air Conditioner)