Motoring Discussion > Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Auntie Lockbrakes Replies: 19
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New Thu 10 Oct 13 22:57 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - Auntie Lockbrakes
I'm "middle-aged" and have always worked with HP or BHP when comparing engines' power. I even became au fait with the German (metric?) equivalent PS (pfaerdestaerke).

Over the past year or so I keep seeing more and more references to Kilowatts of power, and now it seems that the BHP figure has been dropped altogether?!

What happened?! An EU-directive or something?! Or is it just occurring here in the antipodes?!

Is there a simple formula to convert KW back to BHP?

I juggle mpg with l/100km, and a gallon to 4.545 litres all the time. And now this on top..!
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New Thu 10 Oct 13 23:12 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - bathtub tom
>>I juggle mpg with l/100km, and a gallon to 4.545 litres all the time. And now this on top..!

Alzheimers next, forget it, be happy!

;>)
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New Thu 10 Oct 13 23:28 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - Bromptonaut
I'd say it's NZ rather than European. Certainly, in our recent purchase of a Berlingo, power was quoted in PS/BHP with kw secondary.
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New Fri 11 Oct 13 02:32 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - idle_chatterer
I notice this in Australia - they have metricised everything although colleagues tell me that they did happily use Imperial Gallons and Miles (plus BHP) in days of yore.

So, my car has 118Kw not 160PS (or indeed 158BHP), does 7.2 l/100Km and Km/H.... It's torque I find hardest to gauge in NM rather than lbft, not sure why.
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New Fri 11 Oct 13 15:09 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - Mike H
>> It's torque I find hardest to gauge in NM rather than lbft, not sure why.
>>
I find it the other way round, for some reason all the Saab chatter I get involved in is in Nm, not lbft, and I have no idea how they compare! But like you, I am constantly converting l/100km into mpg. Must be an age thing, as I'm 60 ;-)
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New Sat 12 Oct 13 08:34 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - jc2
282/mpg=l/100km
282/l/100km=mpg
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New Fri 11 Oct 13 08:28 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - jc2
746W=1HP. Watts are used so there is no confusion between HP,PS & CV.
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New Fri 11 Oct 13 09:16 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - Old Navy
We are being prepared for the Green revolution when all cars will be plug in electric and the pollution is transferred to the (non existent) power stations. :-)
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New Sat 12 Oct 13 15:22 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - Cockle
BHP was replaced by Watts back in 1972 under the change to SI units; in fact, having started secondary education in 1968, I was never taught in anything but SI units in preparation for the change.

From 2010 EU directives came into force in the EU that Watts should now be regarded as the statutory measurement although BHP can still be shown as a secondary measurement, my new car is shown with the BHP in brackets..... The 2010 deadline for the change is probably why it has become noticeable in general but for some of us, me, HP was always a bit of a strange animal to get my head around what with equalling 746W and all that....
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New Sat 12 Oct 13 15:48 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - Slidingpillar
Yards, feet and inches in my primary school, and when I went to secondary school, only metric was used, and they were surprised I'd not been taught it.
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New Sat 12 Oct 13 17:01 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - Stuartli
I have a 170PS VW Jetta - its BHP equivalent is 168. Hardly anything to worry about when working out the difference...:-)

I also still prefer lb ft in the case of torque figures.
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New Sat 12 Oct 13 19:07 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - No FM2R
They can use baked beans per micro-furlong for all I care, just so they all use the same so that I can compare them.
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New Sun 13 Oct 13 11:42 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - mikeyb
VW have quoted Kilowatts in their handbooks for years. The 98 A3 I've just acquired quotes all the specs for all the models in Kiliwatts
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New Sun 13 Oct 13 19:35 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - busbee
From memory, 746 watts per 1 HP if you want to convert.

A 1 HP electric motor needs more than 746 to output 1 HP
because it is less than 100% efficient.
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New Sun 13 Oct 13 20:24 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - Manatee
So when an appliance has a 1000 watt motor, is that the draw or the output? Or is it just so approximate it makes no difference?
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New Sun 13 Oct 13 20:31 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - NortonES2
SFAIK, it's just the draw, and probably approximate but exaggerated for marketing purposes, as you imply.
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New Mon 14 Oct 13 07:56 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - jc2
Marketing!!!! I bought an 80,000 B.Th.U boiler. Output was actually 60,000-they quoted input.But also on offer from a different supplier was another 80,000 boiler but that was output-input was 100,000 B.Th.U.
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New Mon 14 Oct 13 08:21 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - -
Whatever they call it doesn't bother me either, don't take too much notice of bhp figures if i'm comparing apples with apples.

Its the torque figure, especially its rise and at what revs which tranlates into how driveable the car will be for me, and as with all good marketing (quite right jc2) they try to avoid publishing those figures unless its impressive enough.

All the bhp in the world is no good to me if its got no torque until say 2000rpm is reached then you have maybe a 1500rpm window of power to drive in, hopeless, and perfectly displayed by some modern Diesels.

The unit of measurement changes to keep people who make such decisions in lucrative non jobs.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Mon 14 Oct 13 at 08:21
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New Mon 14 Oct 13 08:24 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - Cliff Pope
They are probably not genuine achievable figures anyway. Doubtless HJ publishes the actual ones.

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New Mon 14 Oct 13 16:24 
 Kilowatts - what happened to BHP? - Chas
This subject is a challenge to keep up with as I maintain a vehicle index to engine code level of 12,400 different makes and models for the product catalogues of an all makes parts supplier.

I like to use kilowatts as a starting point as frequently as BHP and PS often get confused or misquoted in vehicle specifications. Also vehicle manufacturer marketeers get in on the act distorting things as well.

A few examples:

Peugeot 206 GTi 180 with the EW10J4S engine - everyone thinks that means 180 BHP err no just 174bhp actually but you could argue that 177 PS can be rounded up to 180.

Most VAG vehicles are marketed using PS so you get a Golf TDI105 which is actually 104 BHP

To calculate from kW to BHP multiply by 1.341
To calculate BHP to PS multiply by 1.014



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