McLaren P1 Fuel Economy Ratings Are Released

Not to long ago no one cared how well the latest million dollar halo hyper car scored on the EPA test, but these days are over as the latest halo cars from Ferrari, Porsche and McLaren are all technically hybrids. Earlier this year the Porsche 918 Spyder became the first plug in hyper car to be rated by the EPA to the tune of 20 mpg city and 24 mpg on the highway along with a gasoline equivalent of 67 mpg while operating solely on electricity. The McLaren P1 is now also officially rated by the EPA. The P1 is good for 16 mpg city and 20 highway and 17 in combined driving. It appears that while you can get up to 19 miles of plug in assisted driving from the battery the benefits are so tiny that you will end up averaging only 1 mpg better driving as a plug in. For reference the 650S that uses a lower output version of the same 3.8 twin turbo V8 is good for 16 city and 22 highway, but of course the P1 blows it away performance wise. Thus the P1 does pretty well for greatly increasing performance while minimizing fuel economy loses. Even more impressive is the BMW i8 which is officially good for 28 mpg in the city and 29 on the highway as a hybrid and will deliver a combined gasoline and electricity usage rate of 76 mpg as a plug in in its first 15 miles. Of course the i8 is playing in the minor leagues performance wise compared to the 918 and the P1 but it's fun to compare regardless.
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Sciros - 9/5/2014 10:46:13 AM

+1 Boost

The i8 is actually pretty disappointing for fuel economy... heck, my Stingray has the same highway fuel economy as the i8 and it's actually achievable :-/

The 918, on the other hand, continues to impress. Seems that unless you're on the Nurburgring constantly breaking triple-digit speeds, the 918 is superior to the P1 in just about every way. Go figure.

chewy - 9/5/2014 12:14:16 PM

+1 Boost

29 highway isn't too impressive, but 28 city is. The 918 is quicker of the line but the P1 appears to catch up and pass at higher speeds. No one has tested the LaFerrari yet but I think it would be more like the P1.