How does the Prius fuel consumption compare to other cars out there?

I was wondering what is the Fuel consumption of cars out there, in comparison to the Prius. I mean, real life consumption.
Then I realised I had the answer under my nose.

There is a German website, also in English, called Spritmonitor, that can be used to track one’s own fuel consumption, thus sharing this information also with all other owners with the same car or a different one.

The Database is pretty huge and complex searches can be carried out. Moreover, most users are from Germany or Europe, which means there are a lot of diesel vehicles, as well as a lot of small ones. And the terrain of most drivers is not as flat as it can happen in some parts of the US (except the Netherlands!  ) and the speed limits, driving style (manual gearshift) is closer to that of the EU. This gives also another perspective to US drivers on how much their Prius is really consuming compared to the “rest”.

Moreover, the site provides statistical overviews on overall fuel consumption per HP and other such diagrams in the “Evaluations” section – see here (HP vs L/100km – those are not MPG).

So these are some of the “findings” (all in L/100km) – you can play with the search engine and make your own statistics and draw your own conclusions. The important value here is the avg. fuel consumption.
For all non-metric drivers out there, US mpgs are:
3L/100km = 78mpg
4L/100km = 59mpg
5L/100km = 47mpg
6L/100km = 39mpg
10L/100km = 23mpg

(and please convert your country to metric!  )

My Prius: min 4,65 avg 5,39 max 6,73
Priuses with similar km (20000km): 69 cars, min 3,85 avg 5,17 max 6,32
All Priuses 2010: 220 cars min 3,66 avg 5,17 max 6,62
All 1st and 2nd gen Priuses: 429 cars min 3,70 avg 5,22 max 6,88
All Priuses: 810 cars min 2,57 avg 5,21 max 7,26

Now the interesting part:
All “recent” diesels (after 2008) with 120-145 HP (more or less +/- 10% power) and at least 20000km: 1060 cars min 4,68 avg 6,87 max 12,17
All “recent” diesels (after 2008) with 120-145 HP (more or less +/- 10% power): 2288 cars min 3,85 avg 6,89 max 14,18
“All” diesels (after 2000) with 120-145 HP (more or less +/- 10% power): 6275 cars min 3,33 avg 10,00max 14,81
All “super recent” diesels (since 2010) with no more than 145 HP and at least 10000km: 662 cars min 3,39 avg 5,96 max 11,90
All “super recent” diesels (since 2010) with no more than 145 HP: 2064 cars min 2,32 avg 6,02 max 17,88
All “super recent” diesels (since 2010) with 120-145 HP (more or less +/- 10% power): 681 cars min 3,85 avg 6,80 max 12,05

In comparison all Cdi versions of the SmartForTwo (54HP version) have the following statistic: 63 cars min 3,69 avg 4,43 max 5,97

This means that all diesels that on average consume less than a Prius need to have a power between 54 and 145 HP and be bigger than a SmartForTwo but smaller than a Prius, on average…

For gasoline, no need to go in such details – let’s simply take something similar to a Prius today with the same HP, with at least 10000km, sold in the last 2 years: 972 cars min 3,66 avg 7,37 max 12,82 (this includes the Prius!!!)
If I take the Prius out, that is, only manual gearshift cars (still the majority in EU – the Spritmonitor has only 54 “automatic” of which a good part are Priuses – 128 cars are “CVT” with a lot of Priuses): 691 cars min 5,00 avg 7,82 max 12,82

So….quickly said:

• my Prius consumes on average slightly more than all of the Prius 2010 in the DB – which in comparison consume slightly less than the 1st+2nd gen Priuses (but there is room for improvement, since most Priuses 2010 are “new” *and* considering the Prius 2010 has more power and torque…it is essentially consuming “less”);
• the “Prius” consumes about 1,7L/100km less than recent diesels (!) of same km and similar power;
• the “Prius” consumes less than super-diesels recently launched on the market, which also consume not much less than a bit older diesels…
• to get a diesel that consumes less than a Prius on average, you need either a less powered car, or a smaller car like the SmartForTwo, that still consumes like some Priuses out there, blessed by good weather, flat roads, and most of all, hypermilers at the steering wheel (clearly I am not!) 
• In the last 10 years, the avg fuel consumption of diesels has improved *greatly* but still on average is not better than the Prius
• Gasoline driven cars (mainly in EU) similar to the Prius are simply hopeless, since they consume on avg 2.6L/100km more and the min reached is 5L/100km which is the *avg* of *all* Priuses….

So if you think that the fuel efficiency of your Prius is not good, think twice – you are always, on average, consuming less than most people out there…

(reminder to self) If you see an ad from BMW boasting their Efficient Dynamics diesel car with a fuel efficiency better than a Prius for suburban driving, on average it will still not do much to the overall “diesel world”, and unless the driver is gentle on the gas and 95% of the time on a regional road, driving 90km/h at 25C, he will never manage it…