Liter Per 100 Kilometers (L/100 km)
Fuel used to travel 100 kilometers. The standard fuel-economy unit in Europe, Canada, Australia and China; lower is better.
1 liter per 100 kilometers = 100 kilometers per liter (exactly).
About the liter per 100 kilometers
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.
Sources: Wikipedia: Fuel economy in automobiles; fueleconomy.gov: Learn more about the gasoline label
Liter Per 100 Kilometers conversion chart
10 liters per 100 kilometers expressed in every other fuel economy unit:
| Unit | 10 liters per 100 kilometers |
|---|---|
| Km/L | 10 |
| MPG (US) | 23.52145833 |
| MPG (UK) | 28.24809363 |
| Mi/L | 6.213711922 |
| Gal/100 Mi (US) | 4.251437074 |
| Gal/100 Mi (UK) | 3.540061899 |
| L/mil | 1 |
More Metric (SI) units
- kilometer per liter (fuel economy)
- meter (length)
- kilometer (length)
- centimeter (length)
- millimeter (length)
- micrometer (length)
- nanometer (length)
- picometer (length)
- decimeter (length)
- hectometer (length)
- decameter (length)
- kilogram (weight & mass)
- gram (weight & mass)
- milligram (weight & mass)
- microgram (weight & mass)
- metric ton (weight & mass)
Browse all fuel economy units.