L/100 Km to Km/L

1 liter per 100 kilometers equals 100 kilometers per liter.

How to convert liters per 100 kilometers to kilometers per liter

Converting liters per 100 kilometers to kilometers per liter is not a simple multiplication, so use the formula below.

kilometers per liter = 100 ÷ liters per 100 kilometers

Example: 10 liters per 100 kilometers = 10 kilometers per liter.

Miles per gallon rises as a car gets more efficient, while liters per 100 km falls. The conversion between them is a reciprocal (for US mpg: L/100 km = 235.215 ÷ mpg).

About these units

Liter Per 100 Kilometers (L/100 km)

Metric (SI)Current unit

Fuel used to travel 100 kilometers. The standard fuel-economy unit in Europe, Canada, Australia and China; lower is better.

Where miles per gallon asks how far you go, litres per 100 km asks how much you burn. Consumption is the reciprocal of economy, so it behaves linearly: if two cars each drive 100 km, the one that uses 8 litres instead of 10 saves exactly 2 litres, whatever the starting point. The sources I found do not name an inventor or date for the unit, but it is the standard in much of Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and China.

Lower is better, which surprises people used to mpg. The relationship between the two scales is a reciprocal: for US mpg, L/100 km equals 235.215 divided by mpg. The Smart Fortwo cdi at about 3.4 L/100 km works out to roughly 69 mpg (US), while a full-size SUV in the US averages around 16 mpg on the highway, which is about 14.7 L/100 km. The US EPA introduced gallons per 100 miles, which carries the same logic, to counter the MPG illusion and make comparisons fairer.

1 liter per 100 kilometers = 100 kilometers per liter (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Fuel economy in automobiles; fueleconomy.gov: Learn more about the gasoline label

Kilometer Per Liter (km/L)

Metric (SI)Current unit

Distance traveled on one liter of fuel. The standard way to quote fuel economy in India, Japan, Brazil and much of Asia.

Kilometres per litre is the most literal way to ask how far a car goes on a given amount of fuel. It is a direct measure of fuel economy, so higher is better, and it sits between the two systems that dominate the world: miles per gallon and litres per 100 km. The sources I found do not credit any specific inventor or date for it; it is simply the metric counterpart to miles per gallon, formed by dividing distance by volume in the units a country already used for roads and fuel.

Wikipedia lists India, Japan and South Korea among the places that quote economy in km/L. A conversion shows how it relates to US figures: 1 km/L is about 2.35 mpg (US), so 10 km/L is roughly 23.5 mpg (US), in the same range as the average new US vehicle of the 2020 model year, which was about 25.4 mpg. The Levant has its own variant, kilometres per 20 litres, based on the size of a common fuel container called a tanaka.

The kilometer per liter is the reference unit for fuel economy on this site.

Sources: Wikipedia: Fuel economy in automobiles; Wikipedia: Imperial gallon

Related conversions

See all fuel economy units.