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Ford Fiesta ECOnetic wins ALD Automotive/Shell Marathon with 90.6 mpg US; benefits of smart driving techniques
9 October 2012
The Ford Fiesta ECOnetic 1.6 TDCi won the 2012 ALD Automotive/Shell FuelSave MPG Marathon in the UK, clocking up 108.78 mpg UK (90.6 mpg US, 2.6 l/100 km) over a 370-mile route involving tough, real-world driving in challenging weather conditions.
The annual event is a test of fuel consumption for showroom vehicles, which also demonstrates the financial benefits of simple, smarter driving techniques. This year’s route through the hills of South Wales and the Cotswolds was made more challenging by a bridge collapse and a traffic light failure along the way.
Ford’s winning team, Andrew Marriott and Andy Dawson are both former rally drivers and beat their nearest rival by more than six miles per gallon.
The super-frugal Ford Fiesta ECOnetic, which features an official combined fuel consumption of 85.6 mpg UK (71.3 mpg US, 3.3 l/100 km) and CO2 emissions of 87 g/km, shoed that smarter driving can dramatically reduce the cost of running a family car. This year’s run demonstrated a 27% improvement over its official combined fuel consumption figure.
Ford’s ECOnetic technology significantly assists the efficiency of Fiesta and FiestaVan models, by combining Start/Stop technology, combustion and calibration improvements, smart regenerative charging and revised gear ratios among other enhancements.
The Ford Focus Titanium 1.0 EcoBoost also took part, with drivers Paul and Doug Clifton, from BBC South, producing 61.93 mpg (51.6 mpg US, 4.6 l/100 km)— a near 10% advance on its official combined cycle figure.
October 9, 2012 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
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I would love to know how fast they went, and what pressure they had their tires at.
The figures are fairly extreme for normal cars on normal roads.
Posted by: mahonj | October 09, 2012 at 06:25 AM
This is an achievement for both car and driver. They did 4X times better than the average car/driver combo in USA.
Posted by: HarveyD | October 09, 2012 at 08:04 AM
Impressive, so why doesn't an American company put their best in America first?
None of the retro-romneys realize that EVs, with 100 mpge, drove emissions down while driving mpg up.
Gas prices tripled and halved for a century, while fleet mpg stayed at 20 something.
Only better alternatives get established firms off their ass.
Posted by: kelly | October 09, 2012 at 08:20 AM
I asked the guy (Andrew Marriott) who did it and he said his average speed was 33 mph!
They should have classes for 40 mph and 50 mph.
33 mph is a bit slow for anything really useful.
I suppose it takes a steady nerve to drive 370 miles @ 33 mph.
Posted by: mahonj | October 09, 2012 at 01:30 PM
33 mph AVERAGE is ectually faster than i expected. Certainly when it's real world driving, inculding some urban parts. I'm guessing that for motorway driving a maximum of 55 mph (90 km/h) was used, so as to be able to draft behind big trucks etc. So a very good result indeed.
Eco driving is not slow driving! You have to accelerate hard to get the engine in the optimal efficiency.
Posted by: Ing. A.S.Stefanes | October 09, 2012 at 11:47 PM
I got another reply. Standard tire pressure (as set by the AA) and they drove at ~45 mph to average 33.
Still a bit slow for motorways and faster A roads etc.
But impressive, nonetheless.
Posted by: mahonj | October 10, 2012 at 05:31 AM