Attrage-ous fuel economy

This week, Mitsubishi demonstrated that an Attrage could be driven more efficiently than a (badly-driven) hybrid. It announced the results of a fuel-efficiency challenge involving the new Attrage sedan.

For consistency, two cars were driven from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur International Airport and back, a journey of 705km, and achieved an actual fuel consumption figure of just 3.8L/100km, some 26 per cent better than the car’s official quoted average figure for the car, 4.8L/100km.

This is an impressive result, better than “real-life” figures we obtained from the newest Toyota Prius. Earlier this year, we achieved 4.3L/100km on an 800km drive from Singapore to Ipoh.

But that does not mean an Attrage is more efficient than a hybrid, since there are a number of factors the pair of Mitsubishis had in their favour. The fuel economy run was carried out at night, which means better traffic conditions and cooler temperatures, both of which improve fuel efficiency.

The cars also travelled at 90-100kmh and under those conditions, any normal car will achieve its best efficiency figures. Our Prius was driven at higher average speeds and we encountered roughly 50-60km of traffic jams on the North-South Highway in the daytime heat.

Regardless of the kind of car you have, there are lessons any driver can use in order to get saintly fuel consumption figures and heavenly bills, too: Keep a lower average speed, don’t accelerate gratuitously, and plan ahead to avoid stop-and-go traffic whenever you can. DERRYN WONG