Photo: Jaguar/Porsche edited by autoevolution
In a not-so-unexpected twist, a British automotive publication has pitted a German car against one from the United Kingdom, with the British vehicle being designated as the victor. There are more details available, obviously, but we figured we should start with the conclusion.
In short, the Brits from What Car? recently tested 20 cars to see how they perform concerning fuel economy, following a proprietary procedure called True MPG testing. It so happens that among the 20 vehicles that were tested there was also a brand new Porsche 718 Cayman S and a Jaguar F-Type V6 Coupe, so you can probably guess where this is going.
Essentially a mid-cycle facelift of the Cayman (982C), the 718 Cayman S has ditched its predecessor's naturally aspirated flat-six for a turbocharged, 2.5-liter, flat-four. According to Porsche, this move not only brought more horsepower and torque into the mix, but it also resulted in much-improved fuel economy.
Well, it seems that it wasn't enough, because, in What Car?'s True MPG test, the facelifted Cayman returned an mpg figure that was 18.7 percent lower than official NEDC numbers. On the other hand, the supercharged V6 in the Jaguar F-Type is apparently a bit more frugal, since the discrepancies over official claimed mpg figures were of only 14.3 percent, not to mention that it sipped less fuel overall.
Reacting to the True MPG test results, a Porsche spokesperson told Autocar that “the basis of any official Europe-wide Government legislated testing is the NEDC - an agreed industry standard that provides a repeatable consistent platform for cars of all types to be assessed and which intends that data is easily and accurately compared with other cars. The car industry is currently working with legislators on revising the NEDC.”
Real world fuel economy testing has been a long dream of car buyers all over the world, and Europe is finally going to implement it soon.
“Of course, the real world will present variations based on road conditions and driving styles. It can be higher than the official standard fuel consumption, but also lower if the driver adopts an appropriate driving style.” the spokesman continued.
We should probably note that What Car?'s True MPG testing is not exactly foolproof, since they use inherently flawed humans as drivers, not robots, and testing conditions can differ from one vehicle to another because they are done on public roads and in real traffic.
That said, official numbers make the Cayman sound like a fuel sipper compared to the F-Type V6, while this particular real world test proved the exact opposite. Does this mean anything? Probably, but we're kind of sure that 718 Cayman S clients won't change their opinions about their cars too much because of it.
Essentially a mid-cycle facelift of the Cayman (982C), the 718 Cayman S has ditched its predecessor's naturally aspirated flat-six for a turbocharged, 2.5-liter, flat-four. According to Porsche, this move not only brought more horsepower and torque into the mix, but it also resulted in much-improved fuel economy.
Well, it seems that it wasn't enough, because, in What Car?'s True MPG test, the facelifted Cayman returned an mpg figure that was 18.7 percent lower than official NEDC numbers. On the other hand, the supercharged V6 in the Jaguar F-Type is apparently a bit more frugal, since the discrepancies over official claimed mpg figures were of only 14.3 percent, not to mention that it sipped less fuel overall.
Reacting to the True MPG test results, a Porsche spokesperson told Autocar that “the basis of any official Europe-wide Government legislated testing is the NEDC - an agreed industry standard that provides a repeatable consistent platform for cars of all types to be assessed and which intends that data is easily and accurately compared with other cars. The car industry is currently working with legislators on revising the NEDC.”
Real world fuel economy testing has been a long dream of car buyers all over the world, and Europe is finally going to implement it soon.
“Of course, the real world will present variations based on road conditions and driving styles. It can be higher than the official standard fuel consumption, but also lower if the driver adopts an appropriate driving style.” the spokesman continued.
We should probably note that What Car?'s True MPG testing is not exactly foolproof, since they use inherently flawed humans as drivers, not robots, and testing conditions can differ from one vehicle to another because they are done on public roads and in real traffic.
That said, official numbers make the Cayman sound like a fuel sipper compared to the F-Type V6, while this particular real world test proved the exact opposite. Does this mean anything? Probably, but we're kind of sure that 718 Cayman S clients won't change their opinions about their cars too much because of it.
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