To mark the shortest day of the year (June 21 in case you didn't know), we joined a Nissan New Zealand challenge to get the best possible fuel economy from one of its vehicles on a real-world route.
While we wouldn't normally get too involved in something that broadly qualifies as car-company promotion, this was appealing because it really was a challenge - against other automotive publications, in a variety of vehicles. Not that we're competitive or anything.
And while we wouldn't normally acknowledge our competitor publications by name, in this case we will. Because we were the best.
It wasn't entirely scientific. Participants were free to choose their own routes, and each had a different vehicle. The only requirement was to cover exactly 100km in one go, with all concerned being judged on how much they could better Nissan's claimed fuel economy figure.
The project saw two X-Trail e-Power models (of which Driven Car Guide was one), a Qashqai, Patrol and Navara each cover the 100km.
We chose a mix of motorway and urban running. The former is not always kind to a hybrid of the X-Trail e-Power's type; but if we'd gone for broke and covered 100km in strictly urban conditions, we might still be doing it now.
Anyway, we managed 4.2 litres/100km, a 37% improvement on Nissan's 6.1l/100km claim. Final results for everybody below.
“This experience was a chance to show what’s possible when going for a long drive, on the shortest day of the year,” says Sri Padmanabhan, country head of Nissan NZ.
“The results of the unscientific but highly interesting challenge are in, and almost all vehicles were able to better their official fuel consumption ratings. This demonstrates that it is possible to drive efficiently and achieve improvements over the official consumption figures, regardless of the model."
Nissan NZ long drive, shortest day challenge
X-Trail ST-L e-Power (official 6.1-litres/100km): David Linklater, Driven Car Guide, 4.2l/100km, 37% improvement
Patrol (16.2l/100km): Kyle Cassidy, Autocar, 11.4l/100km, +35%
X-Trail Ti-L e-Power (6.1l/100km): Cameron Officer, 66 Magazine, 5.4l/100km, +12%
Navara ST-X (7.7l/100km): Liz Dobson, Automuse, 7.6l/100km, +1%
Qashqai Ti-L e-Power (4.1l/100km): Matthew Hansen, Car Expert, 4.3l/100km, -5%