Volkswagen Topped in Fuel Economy Integrity. Who Won Domestic 1^st place?

  Controversy over the accuracy of automobile fuel economy has kept occurring. The core of debate is whether automakers had intentionally exaggerated fuel economy or not. In the result of the study, most of the consumers agreed that there is a big difference between the experienced fuel economy that they had felt and official composite fuel economy. Consumers of domestic cars have felt a greater difference, and their dissatisfaction on fuel economy was large. Following the ‘Fuel economy Satisfaction’ (Peugeot at 1^st place), this time ‘Fuel economy Integrity’ was evaluated. In the results of comparing the official composite fuel economy and experienced mileage, Volkswagen won the 1^st place of ‘Fuel economy Integrity’ among the overall brands as the only brand with higher experienced fuel economy than official fuel economy. Among the domestic brands, GM Korea was relatively close to official fuel economy.

  Automotive specialist research firm, Marketing Insight (President: Kim, Jin-Kook), asked the consumers (22,815 persons) who bought new car within past 3 years in 14th Automobile Syndicated Study (surveyed in July 2014) about official composite fuel economy (km/ℓ) of their own car (Recognized composite fuel economy), experienced fuel economy in city and experienced fuel economy in highway to determine the experienced percentage of fuel economy based on that. When assuming Recognized composite fuel economy is 10km/ℓ, the result of converted experienced percentage into actual mileage was as shown in [Table 1].

  Consumers felt that their cars actually drive 9.1km/ℓ when the official composite fuel economy is 10km/ℓ. The difference between the domestic cars and imported cars was not-so-little with domestic at 9.0km/ℓ and imported cars at 9.6km/ℓ. Domestic cars run 7.7km/ℓ in the city and 10.6km/ℓ in highway. Imported cars was higher than domestic as 8.1km/ℓ and 11.5km/ℓ, respectively.

  ‘Fuel economy Integrity’ was set on the basis of the experienced mileage [Table 2]. The 1^st place in experienced mileage among the entire brands was Volkswagen at 10.3km/ℓ. Volkswagen was the only brand whose experienced mileage exceeded 10.0km/ℓ. Peugeot was the 1^st place in fuel economy satisfaction (Refer to: Peugeot topped in Fuel economy Satisfaction. Which Domestic car took the 1st place?) but took the 2^nd place in ‘Fuel economy Integrity’ with 9.8km/ℓ.

  Among the domestic brands, GM Korea ranked first (9.2km/ℓ), followed by Kia (9.0km/ℓ). The reason for GM Korea and Kia ranked at high among domestic brands was because they mostly have mini and small cars in their sales, and fuel economy exaggeration of automakers was not serious among mini and small cars (Refer to: [13th Automobile Syndicated Study] 10km official city fuel economy actually run 8.6km).

  By model among domestic gasoline cars, Trax (9.9km/ℓ) from GM Korean and QM5 (9.3 km/ℓ) from Renault Samsung were selected as Outstanding model in ‘Fuel economy Integrity’. Among import gasoline cars, Taurus and Explorer from Ford accounted for joint first place with 9.7km/ℓ. Although the fuel economy of Taurus and Explorer was not at high level, they seemed to be selected as Outstanding model for ‘Fuel economy Integrity’ because consumers’ evaluation in consideration of body size and engine displacement was close to the official fuel economy.

  Among diesel vehicles, Passat (10.7km/ℓ) and Tiguan (10.5km/ℓ) from Volkswagen were chosen as Outstanding model for ‘Fuel economy Integrity’. Among the Outstanding models by fuel type, the models that exceeds 10km/ℓ experienced mileage were only in diesel vehicles, demonstrating the fuel economy competitiveness of imported diesel vehicles. Among the domestic diesel cars, Maxcruz (9.6km/ℓ) from Hyundai and QM5 (9.5km/ℓ) from Renault Samsung were recognized as Outstanding model for ‘Fuel economy Integrity’.

  Among Domestic hybrids, Hyundai 5G Grandeur (9.6km/ℓ) and Kia K5 (9.2km/ℓ) were relatively high, while Lexus ES (9.8km/ℓ) was high among Imports.

  Fuel mileage exaggeration has emerged as a major social problem. Consumers’ dissatisfaction and intervention of the government and social organizations are becoming more and more serious, while they are targeting the automakers. That is because they believe automakers had been intentionally exaggerated fuel consumption until now. Compensation for the problem doesn’t seem to stay in specific country, company, period or model.

  Satisfaction for fuel economy is the lowest among all the satisfactions, while domestic is even lower. The reason is that the official fuel economy that had been presented by automakers has been generated from intention to deceive the consumers rather than difference in simple measurement method, computing error or mistakes. Rather than being disappointed to lower mileage than the official fuel economy, but they are raging at intentional deceit.

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