Most frugal car in the real world? Autocar finds out with a race...

Manufacturers make big claims about their fuel economy figures. Occasionally, even these claims can be bettered, as Toyota's now closed blog for the iQ managed back in January, extracting 72mpg when Toyota themselves only claimed 65mpg. Often though, real-world driving prevents us from extracting the optimum economy from our cars.

Autocar's test then perhaps sheds a little more relevance on achieving high miles to the gallon. Armed with a Ford Fiesta Econetic, a Vauxhall Corsa Ecoflex, an Insight, a Prius, a BMW 116d and a Smart ForTwo CDi, they each hit the track at Bruntingthorpe with a single litre of fuel and a driver trying to achieve as many miles in the hour as possible. By working to distance rather than outright economy, it avoided the whole race becoming a slow eco-trundle.

The most efficient at the end of the hour? Ford's Fiesta Econetic. It achieved almost sixty miles at the hands of Matt Prior, equivalent - unsurprisingly - to roughly 60mpg. A little way short of Ford's 76mpg combined figure perhaps, but much more representative of what drivers can expect in their daily grind, and a long way from shabby.

The other cars in the test all managed to average around 55mpg, including the diminutive Smart despite being driven pedal-to-the-metal until it spluttered to a halt after 53 minutes.

The full story can be found in the 30th September issue of Autocar, out now. Alternatively, you can watch the video:

Renault's ZEs... driven by Autocar, confirmed for production

Renault will be the first major car manufacturer in the world to offer a range of zero-emissions all-electric vehicles for sale when the Twizy and Zoe go into production in 2011.

The French manufacturer is taking quite a risk given that this will leave many countries with only a short space of time in which to set up a reasonable electric charging infrastructure, though according to Autocar magazine who feature the three Renault ZE concepts this week, Israel and Denmark have both made commitments to importing 100,000 electric Fluence models by 2012. Renault will be establishing a network of "Quickdrop" centres (areas where ZE customers can take their car to have the entire battery unit changed for a fully-charged on in around three minutes) in these countries.

The Twizy

The Twizy microcar is the smallest of Renault's ZE (Zero-Emissions) concepts and has been confirmed for production in Spain in 2011. The car/scooter is a tandem two seater and is designed solely for city driving, with performance similar to that of a 125cc scooter (topping out at around 50mph). Range is short at roughly 60 miles, but realistically you don't need any more than that in a city commute and even in a city like London you should be able to get at least a couple of days' commuting out of it. As you can see in Autocar's video above, the Twizy is apparently quite fun to drive.

The Zoe

The Zoe is supermini-sized (only slightly larger than a Clio) though unlike the Twizy and the larger Fluence, the styling might well change significantly for production. Renault say the Zoe is more representative of what can be done in terms of size. Range is around 100 miles and the motor makes the equivalent of 95bhp giving a 90mph top speed.

The Fluence

Looking more production-ready than either the Twizy or the Zoe is the Fluence. Styling-wise it shares hints of Renault's 2005 Fluence concept as well as a hint of Tesla Model S. However, it's likely to look much more similar to the production petrol and diesel Fluence that appears to be replacing the old Megane saloon. The concept has the same powertrain as the Zoe and shares similar performance and range.

Renault are clearly taking a large risk putting four EVs on sale at the same time (the fourth is an EV version of the current Kangoo van) but this may well be the kick other manufacturers (and indeed customers) need to embrace electric car technology. We await 2011-12 eagerly to see if customers are ready to take the plunge...

Autocar reveals first picture of Murray T25

Autocar have published the first picture of Gordon Murray's city car proposition, the T25.

The car has been seen testing in Surrey, and Murray expects the first cars to be ready for production in two years time. The T25 is smaller than a Smart and weighs in at only 650kg.

Judging by the photo it's not the prettiest of vehicles (though you can't go too far wrong with matt black paint...), but if the car lives up to expectations it could bring about a change of thinking in the city car market. We're already starting to see smaller vehicles being put forward for serious production, such as Renault's Twizy, which will form the basis of the next Smart itself.

Full story here. Autocar are, as yet, the only magazine to have driven a prototype of the revolutionary city car.

Image: Autocar