Nissan asked five motoring journalists to lean into a fuel efficiency exercise. The results were mixed.

AN economy driving exercise by Nissan NZ designed to highlight how much fuel can be saved using prudence proved something of a feat of extremes.

Out of the five involving drivers, all motoring journalists, just two set highly commendable outcomes well below the make’s own counts, while for others rhe report card might have read ‘could do better.’

The one who topped the class was running the make’s most efficient powertrain but right behind was another tasked with exacting extra frugality from an engine that earns a black mark for economy and emissions.

Another driving the make’s thriftiest car on sale, the new Qashqai e-Power, was the sole involver who failed to better the targeted manufacturer data and a third - in a Navara utility - only just slipped below that type’s claimed optimal.

The best frugality came from a X-Trail with the petrol-electric e-Power technology but the next best result was out of the make’s comfortably thirstiest model on sale, a Patrol running the make’s 5.4 litre V8 petrol that is now on runout.

The outcome of the exercise, which asked for involvers to clock up 100 kilometres’ continuous on June 21 - chosen because it’s the shortest day of the year - has been publicised by the brand, which sees it as a success overall.

The idea was for participants to get the best possible fuel economy from a diversity of Nissan vehicles on a real-world route.

The driver with the best result, of 4.2 litres per 100km (above), David Linklater of the NZ Herald’s Driven Car Guide, in a subsequent report agreed with Nissan NZ acknowledgement that the outing wasn’t entirely scientific.

While the brand’s subsequent publicity spoke of participants having tackled a ‘real world’ route under different driving conditions around the country, Linklater said in fact they were free to choose their own routes.

All but one of those locate in the Auckland region.

“The only requirement was to cover exactly 100km in one go, with all concerned being judged on how much they could better Nissan's claimed fuel economy figure.”

It was up to involvers’ own judgement to decide what roads they drove.

Linklater played fair in choosing a mix of motorway and urban running.

“The former is not always kind to a hybrid of the X-Trail e-Power's type; but if we'd gone for broke and covered 100km in strictly urban conditions, we might still be doing it now.”

The e-Power models run an electric drivetrain that employs a petrol engine as a generator.

Linklater’s result presented as a 37 percent improvement over the manufacturer-cited 6.2L/100km.

The other example driven by Wellington-based Cameron Officer, of 66 Magazine, also cracked the feat but didn’t do as well, with 5.4 L/100km, a 12 percent improvement.

The Qashqai e-Power stands as Nissan’s thriftiest car here. Nissan cites it being good for 4.1 litres per 100km, a huge jump over the bulkier, squarer-cut X-Trail. That car’s driver, Matthew Hansen (below) of CarExpert.co.nz, fell short, with 4.3L/100km.

At the other end of the scale, the Nissan Patrol lumbers around burning 16.2L/100km on the official scale. Kyle Cassidy (above), of Autocar, got that down to 11.4l/100km, a 35 percent improvement.

The Navara ST-X, driven by Liz Dobson of Automuse, achieved 7.6L/100km, a one percent improvement on the maker provisioned 7.7L/100km.

What influence a promotional outing of this type might have on the independence and integrity of media might be questioned, but the organiser says the ground rules were set fairly.

Linklater touched on this in commenting “while we wouldn't normally get too involved in something that broadly qualifies as car-company promotion, this was appealing because it really was a challenge - against other automotive publications, in a variety of vehicles.”

Winning made it worthwhile, he added.

Ironically, Nissan has sent out images of four of the involvers with their vehicles - but not of the one who was most successful. His contribution represents with an image of the trip computer count.

Speaking for the brand, Sri Padmanabhan, country head of Nissan NZ, said: “The results of the unscientific but highly interesting challenge are in, and almost all vehicles were able to better their official fuel consumption ratings.

“This demonstrates that it is possible to drive efficiently and achieve improvements over the official consumption figures, regardless of the model.”

Even more extreme thrift is possible from e-Power. At the start of this month Nissan highlighted that a Qashqai e-Power successfully completing a full lap of Tasmania on a single tank of fuel; a 1347km drive.

A feat that saw it settle in at 3.7L/100m and finish with 160kms’ remaining range built on the vehicle’s earlier Land’s End to John O’Groats achievement in the United Kingdom.