The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.
Average MPG for Cars UK (2026)
While not everyone realises it, buying a car with great fuel efficiency can be a fantastic way to save on the annuals costs to run a car, especially if you put a lot of miles on your car—most car owners spend around £1,000 on fuel each year. How many miles does the car get between each visit to the petrol station—and is that level of fuel efficiency any good?
Below we've calculated the average miles per gallon (mpg) for petrol and diesel cars—and miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) for hybrid and electric cars—to give you a benchmark for understanding how fuel efficient any given car is. While buying a car with better fuel economy is the best way to save money at the pump, you can also read our top tips for improving fuel efficiency in your vehicle.
Average Miles per Gallon
The average MPG for cars in the UK is around 38 miles per gallon. Fuel efficiency varies by type of fuel, however, with petrol cars getting 36 mpg and diesel cars getting 43 mpg. In contrast, a host of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) achieve around 150 MPGe, with common models ranging from 126 to 185 vehicle fuel equivalent mpg.
To determine average miles per gallon for internal combustion engine cars, we analysed real-life user data from Spritmonitor, which enables users to track and calculate fuel efficiency for their personal cars. The resulting database contains over 30 million fuel ups for over 800 thousand vehicles. From this database, we extracted real-life fuel usage data from the past year for petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric cars.
| Average MPG or MPGe, by fuel type | |
|---|---|
| Gasoline | 36 MPG |
| Diesel | 43 MPG |
| Plug-in Hybrid Gasoline | 63 MPG |
| Electric | 150 MPGe |
In contrast to cars, the fuel efficiency of motorcycles is much better—the average motorcycle get 56.7 mpg!
Most Efficient UK Electric Cars
Popular BEVs range from an equivalent of 126 to 185 miles per gallon. That means BEVs essentially drive 4X the distance of an internal combustion engine car, for the same amount of fuel.
| EV Efficiency Examples | MPGe |
|---|---|
| BYD SEAL 82.5 kWh RWD Design | 145 |
| Tesla Model 3 | 185 |
| AUDI Q6 E-TRON | 126 |
| FORD PUMA | 158 |
| SKODA ELROQ 60 | 147 |
| KIA EV3 Long Range | 145 |
| VOLKSWAGEN ID3 Pro S | 151 |
Even a large and less efficient vehicle like a Ford e-Tourneo Custom gets around 88mpg fuel equivalent when it's all electric.
Fuel Cost Savings with a BEV
BEVs are much more fuel efficient than internal combustion engines, as we could see above. Now, let's do a quick calculation to see how much money someone could save in fuel costs every year by driving a BEV compared to an ICE car.
These are quick figures, so we're conservatively using a MPGe figure of 125; and using 38mpg for the ICE car. We assume annual car mileage of 7,000 miles per year and a cost of petrol of 132.64 pence per litre.
As the math shows, someone driving 7,000 miles a year could save over £800 per year in fuel costs by driving a BEV compared to a typical petrol car.
BEV vs ICE fuel cost comparison | MPG or MPGe | Annual fuel cost |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol car | 38mpg | £1,171 |
| BEV | 125mpge | £337 |
| Annual savings driving BEV car | £834 |
FAQs
Methodology
Spritmonitor database entries are stored as litres/100km for petrol and diesel cars and kWh/100km for electric cars. For use in the UK, we converted these values into miles per gallon (Imperial) or a miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) for electric cars. To calculate the overall miles per gallon metric, we took a weighted average of petrol and diesel figures using the number of petrol and diesel cars in the UK.
To calculate MPGe for electric cars, we researched vehicles in the EV Database.