5 Most Fuel-Efficient Hybrid Cars In Singapore

Extracting maximum forward momentum from every ounce of fuel requires one to be extra cautious behind the wheel. A missed gap in traffic or the need to suddenly stomp on the loud pedal, may be all it takes to throw your fuel economy figures out of whack. Since we now know that snake oil can’t help you reduce the amount of crude oil you actually burn, and that there is someone of an art form behind efficient usage of petrol, it’s time to take your fuel-saving game seriously and crank things up a notch by considering a switch to the 5 most fuel-efficient cars for sale in Singapore today!

The headline stats for BMW’s flagship are impressive. It packs a 3.0 Litre, Turbocharged V6, with an electric motor for added assistance. Combined, the car packs 282 bhp, and 450Nm of torque, enough to propel this heavy beast of a luxobarge to a century sprint time of just 5.1 seconds. With such mass, and its surprising willingness to accelerate, you’d expect that, even as a plug-in hybrid, that fuel economy would be poor. It isn’t, being able to do a fuel economy figure of 2.8l/100km!

The model that most will typically associate with this German marque is the E class. You can now enjoy all the creature comforts of this luxury staple, minus the penalty of the exorbitant fuel bills that larger displacement models carry. This variant has a forced induction 2.0 litre 4 pot under the bonnet, which, combined with the electric motor’s output, puts down 280 bhp to the wheels, and will do 2.5l/100km! For a fully loaded luxury vehicle, those are respectable figures!

The 530e iPerfomance is BMW’s answer to Mercedes’ stab at making a PHEV. It too combines a 4-cylinder engine, with some help from a turbocharger, and an electric motor for a total of 280 bhp to the wheels. The car will hurl itself to 100km/h from a standstill in just 6.2 seconds, and will keep accelerating till it reaches its top speed of 235km/h. You can expect the car to do 2.3l/100km should you decide to put a deposit on one of them!

You can find a variant of the BMW’s 1.5 litre inline 3 in a base model MINI, but that is about all it shares with its stablemate. In i8 flavour, the engine has been slightly massaged to bump output up to 228bhp. The original i8 packed an electric motor capable of 130bhp, but later variants had a different motor configuration, bumping power up to 140bhp, for a combined output of roughly 370bhp. That is a good for a 0-100 km/h sprint time of 4.4 seconds, and it will reach an electronically limited top speed of 250km/h. What’s even more impressive is that it will be a top speed of 120km/h on electric mode only. Regardless of what drive mode you are in, expect a combined fuel economy figure of 1.9l/100km, making it the runner up in our list of most fuel efficient cars…

…bested only by the i3. As with the i8, the i3 is part of BMW’s foray into an electrified future. Unlike the i8, the i3 Range Extender’s 650cc motorcycle-sourced powerplant isn’t capable of driving the wheels directly, instead, only kicking on the top up the battery pack when the range isn’t sufficient. It will do 100km/h from a complete stop in around 6 seconds, whilst achieving an impressive 0.6l/100km economy figure.

It’s no surprise then, that the most fuel-efficient hybrids are all plug-ins. They offer larger battery packs, and thus more range, than your typical hybrid vehicle, reducing the vehicle’s reliance on the internal combustion engine. Coincidentally, or perhaps that was their intention, BMWs seem to be producing the most fuel-efficient plug-ins, with 4 out of the 5 mentioned vehicles from the German marque.

Honourable mentions go to offerings from Hyundai, in the form of the Hyundai Ioniq, and Toyota, in the form of the Prius. Unlike the 5 cars mentioned in this article, which are plug-in hybrids and from luxury automakers, the Ioniq Hybrid and Prius are from mainstream manufacturers, and can do respectable economy figures of around 3.5l/100km, without the added fuss of having to charge it from a wall socket.

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