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Converting MPG into liters per 100 km

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Fuel Economy' started by ckbarnard, May 2, 2006.

  1. ckbarnard

    ckbarnard New Member

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    Most PriusChatters are from the USA, but there are also a number from Canada, the UK, Europe, Australia, Japan, and other places, most or all of whom figure their mileage in metric terms. I'm from the USA and so understand MPG quite readily. However, I have a sister and her family who live in France. I'd love to be able to put my mileage into terms they live with.

    Can anyone out there help me with a formula for converting MPG's to metric and vise versa? :huh:
     
  2. vtie

    vtie New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ckbarnard @ May 2 2006, 09:31 AM) [snapback]248448[/snapback]</div>
    http://www.eforecourt.com/l_100km_mpg_convert.htm

    http://www.pege.org/fuel/convert.htm

    http://www.4wdworld.com.au/tipstricks/fuelconv.htm

    ...
     
  3. deh2k

    deh2k New Member

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    It appears that the formula to convert between miles per US gallon (MPG) and liters per 100 km (l/100km) is approximately 235.2 / x . The same formula converts in both directions. Beware that there is a difference between US and imperial gallons. Some tables, such as the Australian one above, use imperial gallons.

    For whatever it's worth I believe that l/100km is a much better way to measure efficiency. Being the inverse of MPG, it makes the differences in inefficient cars more apparent.
     
  4. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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  5. aaf709

    aaf709 Ravenpaw of ThunderClan

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    My last car had a metric converter button that changed more than just the speedometer. It changed the odometer, temperature, average economy and instant economy. I didn't need that, but it was fun on occasion to use it.
     
  6. Sarge

    Sarge Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ckbarnard @ May 2 2006, 03:31 AM) [snapback]248448[/snapback]</div>
    Here's what I use (figures rounded);

    1 mile = 1.6KM
    1 US Gallon = 3.78L


    The following Excel formula should convert from US MPG to L/100km


    =(3.78/((MPG*1.6)/100))

    Or to convert L/100KM to MPG US

    =(62.5/(L100KM/3.78))


    The bold of course being the number or cell reference you want convert. I think that math is right...

    Of course, you can replace the mile/kilometer conversion and L/US Gallon conversion with the more scientifically precise numbers. :)

    Kevin
     
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  7. floydenheimer

    floydenheimer Junior Member

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  8. ckbarnard

    ckbarnard New Member

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    Thank you, vtie from Belgium, Tideland Prius and Sarge from Canada, and deh2k and floydenheimer from I know not where. What an awesome website! You can get responses from all over the world! All the information I checked out, and it all was very interesting and useful. (Except Sarge, I couldn't figure out how to use your formula.) Particularly useful were the first two links to calculators provided by vtie and the formulas provided by deh2k and Tideland Prius. And thanks to floydenheimer for introducing me to Google's calculator! Very cool! :) :) :) Thanks to you guys, I now can tell my sister's family that I'm averaging between 4.8 and 5 liters per 100 km (47 to 49 MPG)! Thanks again!
     
  9. hdrygas

    hdrygas New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sarge @ May 2 2006, 09:44 AM) [snapback]248596[/snapback]</div>
    Thanks I am going to add L/100km and Gal/100 mi to my spread sheet. I should be interesting to follow!
     
  10. Orf

    Orf New Member

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    Most contributors to this forum reside in the USA and use mile etc. When an author refers to figures I have to convert each to metric for the articles to make sense because I live in a country that uses metric. Either I need a good memory, a mathematical brain or use one of the conversion sites mentioned above to do the conversions.
    The first two options are impossible and the last tiresome - too many conversions.
    Has anyone designed a table that I can print out and refer to for conversions? To cover most occasions it would need to have miles per gallon to litres per 100 kilometres as well as MPH to Km/h.
     
  11. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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  12. okjhum

    okjhum New Member

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    Someone mentioned the Google Calculator. The simplest way of using it is to simply type your desired conversion into the usual search field. E.g., type "42 mpg in liters per 100 km" (without the quotation marks) and in an instant you will get the reply "42 miles per gallon = 5.60034725 liters per 100 km".
    Or vice versa, "4.9 liters per 100 km in mpg" will give you "4.9 liters per 100 km = 48.0029764 miles per gallon".

    Incidentally, you can use the same trick for money or any unit conversion:
    "26500 usd in gbp" yields "26 500 U.S. dollars = 14 160.5215 British pounds"
    "6 feet 2 inches in m" yields "6 feet 2 inches = 1.8796 meters".
    Etc.
    Olle
    (New member. From Sweden.)
     
  13. Balt

    Balt Junior Member

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  14. bredekamp

    bredekamp Member

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    Use Google:

    you simply type your conversion into the search box. Here's an example:

    convert 50mpg to litres/100km

    and it returns

    50 mpg = 4.70429169 litres / (100 km)

    voila!

    This works for temperatures,weight...anything. Very clever.
     
  15. Dan.

    Dan. MPG Centurion

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  16. avdavsim

    avdavsim New Member

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    235.2/x = y;

    Magically, if x is MPG then y is l/100 km and
    if x is l/100 km then y is MPG.

    The constant has units (miles*liters)/(gallons*(100 km)).

    In other words, when you multiply MPG with its corresponding l/100 km, you get this constant value 235.2.

    Remember the basic electric calculations? I learned them with pie charts.

    One had the top half as volts (V) with one bottom quarter being current (I) and the other being resistance ( R ). You cover the one you want with your finger and have the formula for calculating it. So,

    V = I*R, R = V/I, I = V/R.

    Similarly, Power (P), Voltage (V) and Current (I) have the same relationship.
     
  17. bredekamp

    bredekamp Member

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    I assume the US Prius displays mpg using US Gallons. Does the UK Prius show MPG or l/100km? When I rented a car in the UK, I noticed that speed and road markings are miles etc, but you buy petrol per litre.

    Does the UK Prius do both? If it displays mpg does it use imperial gallons?

    This is why your Mars orbiters don't get there you know....

    http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/
     
  18. mchaconcr

    mchaconcr New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(deh2k @ May 2 2006, 07:13 AM) [snapback]248494[/snapback]</div>
    Ina prius? Not really! I have a 2007 Prius in Costa Rica... It shows l/100km... But the consumption graphic looks inverted as yours! the X axix is the same... the last 30 minutes in 5 minutes splits... but the Y axix goes from 0 (bottom) to 10l/100km (top) (infinite miles per gallon to more or less 23 MPG)... yours shows from 0 to 100 MPG, so basically you have the whole range there!!! For me... if the bar is small it means great savings (I try to drive in a way that the bar stays lower than half way (5l/100 Km)) a big bar means... mor gas consumed... but you never know how bad it was... since the maximum it grows is 10l/100 km.
    For you... the bar goes from 0 to 100 MPG, and a small bar means more gas spent (235l/100km) to 2l/100km...

    In wife's Citroen C4 2007 You can choose to use MPG, KPL, or l/100km and everything changes... from speedometer to odometer... to miles, or kilometers!

    Funny Fact: In Costa Rica is a common trend from dealerships to use Kilometers per Gallon (yeah that's right!!! KPG!!!!) the reason is that using a small distance measurement divided by a bigger volume measurement result in bigger numbers.... so is very common to hear than a car makes over 100 kPG!!!!
     
  19. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    My favorite converter.
    http://www.tdiclub.com/misc/conversions.html

    I have never seen a 5 minute bar taller than 8L/100km
    In England you buy fuel in litres but all the speed limits and distances are measured in miles! Speedos are in mph.
    I don't know how they put up with it.
     
  20. Mormegil

    Mormegil Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Marco CR @ Oct 13 2007, 02:52 PM) [snapback]525232[/snapback]</div>
    Which is why I like to think of of my mileage in inches / acre-yard

    I'm getting 51 mpg (I live in SoCal and I'm new at this), or 262,216,891,520 inches / acre-yard!
     
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