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Kia’s new Niro Hybrid set a new Guinness world record for achieving the lowest fuel consumption by a hybrid vehicle on a US coast-to-coast drive from LA to New York.
The trek was accomplished by Wayne Gerdes and co-driver Robert Winger in a stock Kia Niro EX. Spanning 3715.4 miles, the duo’s fuel consumption average was 76.6 mpg (3.07lt/100km) and they only used 4.1 tanks of gas or 48.5 gallons (183.5 liters).
“We’re extremely pleased with the Niro’s record-breaking performance,” said Orth Hedrick, vice president, product planning KMA. “We set out to build a vehicle that offers real-world utility, great looks and fantastic mileage, and setting the Guinness World Record® title confirms our achievement.”
On paper, the official EPA mileage rating for the standard FE model is 52 mpg highway, 49 city, and 50 mpg combined. Kia has not listed the EX model’s fuel economy ratings, but going from 50 mpg to 76.6 is a huge jump. They probably accomplished this by hypermiling whenever possible and driving with any creature comforts like A/C and heat.
No matter how they managed to do it, the new Guinness world record is still a nice bit of press release for the automaker’s new dedicated eco-car platform and hybrid system.