Honda Elevate real world fuel economy tested, explained

Is Honda’s City-based midsize SUV as fuel-efficient as its sedan counterpart?

Published On Oct 13, 2023 10:27:00 AM

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The Elevate is one of the last entrants in the midsize SUV segment, and Honda has priced it rather well, undercutting the higher variants of its rivals. Available as a petrol-only offering, the Elevate shares its 121hp, 1.5-litre petrol engine with the Honda City sedan. We put the Creta-rivalling SUV through our instrumented tests to find out whether it is just as efficient as its sedan counterpart.

Petrol engine produces 121hp, 145Nm of torque
MT weighs 1,243kg; CVT weighs 1,258kg

Honda Elevate mileage

Honda’s 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol engine delivers impressive fuel efficiency in the City sedan, however, in the Elevate, it doesn’t. While Honda claims 16.92kpl for the CVT and 15.31kpl for the MT, in our real-world tests, it averaged 10.8kpl and 11kpl, respectively.

The reason for the Elevate’s low fuel efficiency is its sharp throttle responses, which take a toll on fuel consumption. In addition, Honda has tweaked the MT’s gearing, which is much shorter than the City’s, so while acceleration feels strong, at cruising speeds of 100kph in sixth gear, the engine is spinning at 2,800rpm – 100rpm higher than in the City – thus affecting its highway consumption.

Shifting focus to the automatic, unlike the City CVT, the Elevate CVT doesn’t get an Economy mode to aid efficiency either. Neither variant gets an automatic engine stop-start feature, which some of its rivals offer to save fuel while idling.

It must be noted that during our test, ambient temperatures were over 35 degrees Celsius, due to which the air-conditioning was working in full swing for the most part of the test. This could also have an impact on fuel consumption.

Autocar India’s fuel efficiency testing

Before our real-world fuel efficiency test, we fill the tanks of our test cars to the brim and maintain tyre pressures based on the manufacturer’s recommendation. These cars are driven in fixed city and highway loops in Navi Mumbai and the adjoining state highway, and we maintain set average speeds. Throughout our test, we ran the air-con and other electricals like the audio system, indicators and wipers when required, just like how a regular user would. Periodic driver swaps further neutralise variations in driver patterns. At the end of each cycle, we calculate efficiency by filling them up to the brim again.

Also see:

Honda Elevate review

Honda City real world fuel efficiency

Hyundai Creta real world fuel efficiency