Tests reveal popular cars using 30% more fuel than advertised 

Conducted by Australia’s peak motoring body, the Program has now released real-world fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions results for 84 popular cars. These results show more than half of the vehicles tested use at least 5 per cent more fuel in real driving conditions compared to their mandatory lab test results, and five of these cars use more than 30% more.

In the latest batch of 14 vehicles, the Mazda 2 had the largest fuel consumption discrepancy (35%), followed by the Suzuki Swift Hybrid (31%), the Mazda CX-5 (22%) and the MG5 (21%).

AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley said: “These results again show real-world testing is needed to help consumers and fleet buyers avoid buying a vehicle that produces more emissions and higher running costs than advertised.

“While some cars perform as per the information at point of sale, our Program is revealing that many, if not most, do not.”

The AAA Program also addresses greenwashing concerns and will make the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) more robust and more effective. The Federal Government’s NVES began in January 2025 and now incentivises car makers to sell more low-emissions vehicles to reduce the nation’s transport emissions. As the NVES starts to reshape the Australian car market, real-world testing will become increasingly important to enable consumers to choose models that perform as advertised. 

“Testing cars in real Australian driving conditions will help sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to cars delivering fuel consumption that matches their mandated laboratory test results, and it will act as a complementary audit regime for the NVES”, Mr Bradley said. “The Program is working with the NVES to help make the national vehicle fleet cleaner and more fuel-efficient.”

The Real-World Testing program is a global first. It was developed by the AAA and funded by the Commonwealth Government to help Australian consumers and fleets reduce their fuel consumption and motoring costs and access better information on vehicle emissions. At the 2022 election, both sides of politics committed to supporting real-world testing after the 2015 Volkswagen scandal and subsequent studies suggested stricter emissions standards might be incentivising car makers to optimise lab test results to avoid regulatory penalties.

The Program tests cars on roads in and around Geelong, Victoria, and compares real-world fuel consumption and emissions results with those obtained in mandatory lab tests.  It uses strict test protocols to ensure fuel consumption and emissions results are repeatable and to minimise the influence of human factors such as driving style and changing traffic flows. Before launching the Program, the AAA undertook 23 tests on its reference vehicle (a Toyota RAV4) with final test protocols delivering fuel consumption variability of less than 2.5%.

For full results on all 84 vehicles tested so far, visit realworld.org.au