"64 MPG Mitsubishi Mirage" from Mirage rated 64 MPG highway in Canada, 44 MPG in the US? WTF?! - MirageForum.com!
Canada's fuel economy overseer (NRCAN) has finally adjusted its fuel economy ratings approach to catch up to the EPA... six years later.
We're going from 2-cycle to 5-cycle fuel economy testing, which means our ratings will now more or less fall in line with U.S. ratings which have used this method since 2008.
Originally, NRCAN seemed to resist changing the ratings. I remember reading one article where an official justified the previously optimistic numbers by calling them "
aspirational". In other words: you can expect to get this fuel economy if you drive
very, very carefully.
For most "normal" drivers, it was practically impossible to get their car's city ratings.
I saw this in my
ecodriving coaching sessions, where
zero out of 5 normal drivers (non-EM members) was able to beat the "aspirational" city rating on their baseline (un-coached) lap. However 4 out of 5 of them were able to beat it after about 30 minutes of demonstration & coaching. (And the 5th was driving a Ford Edge AWD which I honestly believe has an incorrect rating. Ford. Ahem.)
The NRCAN changes apply to 2015 model year vehicles.
Like the EPA, NRCAN is now providing "updated" fuel economy ratings on its website for older cars. (Though they still need to make it more obvious on their site. If you search for an older vehicle's ratings, you still see the old "aspirational" figures in the first page of search results. To see the "adjusted" ratings, you have to go a page deeper by clicking to view the vehicle's details)
Fuel Consumption Search | Office of Energy Efficiency
So, sayonara "64 mpg" (Imperial gallons) Mirages and "76 mpg" Priuses!