MG Hector Diesel Fuel Economy Test: Can it beat the Tata Harrier? [Video]

A few months back, we ran the Tata Harrier through our typical fuel economy test wherein we drive the vehicle over a standard route of 180km on the Taj Expressway at a speed of 80 km/h with the air-con running set at about 26 degrees. During that run, the Harrier delivered an excellent figure of 23.9 kmpl [see video] and with the MG Hector, its chief rival, being the talk of the town, we threw the challenge to this new kid on the block too. Could this one, the Hector diesel, manage or better the same figure given the same driving conditions?

Remember, both the Tata Harrier and the MG Hector come with the same 2.0 diesel motor that is sourced from the FCA group. However, both companies have tuned the engine differently. Further, the Hector makes an additional 30PS of power, is heavier than 25 kilos but rides on tyres that are 20mm narrower. Interesting combination right? Well, to know the actual figure that we achieved, hit the play button right away!

We have been doing these fuel economy runs for a while now and do them in a ‘controlled’ way just to understand how much can a car deliver when driven with a light right foot. Yes, we understand you and I will never drive a car on open roads like this, but as we said, the idea is to extract the best. In this case, the Hector diesel comes with a rated economy of just over 17 kmpl and this is fractionally more than that of the Harrier’s. Our end result? Read on…

We always conduct these drives on a tankful to tankful basis and make sure the tank is filled to the brim slowly, allowing air bubbles to escape in the process. This is a slow process but ensures the end result is as error free as possible. In this case, we drove the car for 178km and in the end, it took in 7.31 litres of diesel before it could take no more [watch the video above] – simple calculations show that the end result was an average of 24.3 kmpl. The display in the meantime showed 24.9 kmpl and such a small error is a common occurrence. Do note that an indicated 80 km/h, the engine spins at about 1450 rpm in the 6th gear.

So yes, the Hector ended up delivering a figure that was 2% higher than the Harrier’s 23.9 but to be fair, such a small margin can be ignored. Its fair to say then that the Hector, inspite of having more power under the hood, is as efficient as the lighter Harrier. We will be coming up with two more fuel economy runs of other Hector models, but with a twist. What are these and how did the other engine configurations fare? Well for this, keep an eye on this website and also hit the subscribe button on our Youtube channel right away!