Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America, Inc. (MFTA) has developed its new line of Canter medium-duty commercial trucks to provide lower cost of ownership. To gauge one aspect of how its new Canters perform, MFTA commissioned Automotive Testing and Development Services, Inc. (ATDS) to conduct independent fuel economy testing of its new Canter FE160 compared to an Isuzu NPR-HD.
ATDS tested two equivalently configured vehicles — a 2012 FUSO Canter FE160 and a 2011 NPR-HD. Testing was conducted under identical conditions on a 97.4-mile course that covered a mixture of city, suburban and highway driving conditions, with both trucks loaded to 14,490 lbs. Testing was conducted in strict accordance with SAE J1321 Type II Fuel Consumption Test procedures. At the end of multiple runs conducted over several days, and filtered to eliminate any run where the elapsed time varied by more than 0.5 percent from the average, the Canter FE160 produced an average fuel economy of 12.331 mpg, compared to 11.370 mpg for the Isuzu NPR-HD— an 8.45 percent advantage for the Canter.
Advantage even stronger when using the Canter's ECO mode
All test results above are based on both the Canter FE160 and the NPR-HD being operated in normal driving mode—which offers the most direct comparison. However, every 2012 Canter model also offers an ECO Mode, which is specifically designed to improve fuel economy. While this mode is not available on the NPR-HD, when the ECO Mode was engaged on the Canter, the FE160's fuel economy advantage improved to 13.8 percent over the NPR-HD, using the same course and same testing protocol as the initial testing.
To read the full report, with complete test protocol and detailed results, visit http://mitfuso.com/fuel.
