A new analysis indicates the amount motorists are willing to spend and reveals that horsepower and purchase price aren’t always directly correlated and you’ll be surprised by the results.
Every buyer has their own priorities when buying a new car: a large boot, comfortable seating, air conditioning, or intelligent assistance systems; yet horsepower remains a consistent customer demand.
Strong horsepower allows for quick acceleration and plenty of thrust for safe overtaking. But how much should we spend on it? And what vehicles offer the power for purchase price?
The online shop for auto parts, kfzteile24, has analysed 45 of the most popular vehicle models from across Europe to uncover their price per unit of horsepower.
In principle, “horsepower” is an obsolete term that was officially rejected by the automobile industry in 1978 and replaced by the kilowatt-hour unit. Its name indicates back to its origins: the term ‘horsepower’ was a unit of measurement used to describe the force a horse had to exert to pull a load of 75 kilograms one meter in one second. A 100hp was a vehicle pulled by 100 horses. This measurement of power is unsurprisingly considered outdated, as animals simply can’t exert the same speed or force as modern cars.
Price of power for models
Type/Brand | Car Type | Average Price (£) | AVG hp | Price per hp | |
1 | Bugatti Chiron | Super Sports Car | 2.432.925,55 £ | 1,479 | 1.644,98 £ |
2 | Porsche 911 GT2 RS | Sports Car | 254.224,78 £ | 700 | 363,18 £ |
3 | Aston Martin DBS Superleggera | Sports Car | 254.798,61 £ | 715 | 356,36 £ |
4 | Lamborghini Huracan | Sports Car | 197.751,59 £ | 630 | 313,89 £ |
5 | Ferrari 488 GTB | Sports Car | 204.406,76 £ | 670 | 305,08 £ |
6 | Smart EQ Fortwo | Small Car | 20.565,96 £ | 81 | 253,90 £ |
7 | Peugeot 2008 | SUV | 22.350,41 £ | 109 | 205,05 £ |
8 | Maserati Quattroporte | Limousine | 94.160,21 £ | 474 | 198,86 £ |
9 | Ford Kuga | SUV | 28.745,00 £ | 150 | 191,63 £ |
10 | VW Polo | Small Car | 16.512,50 £ | 89 | 186,58 £ |
11 | Mercedes C class | Middle Class | 45.816,60 £ | 255 | 179,67 £ |
12 | Audi A3 Sportback | Compact | 27.463,93 £ | 153 | 179,50 £ |
13 | Audi A4 | Middle Class | 29.717,61 £ | 170 | 174,81 £ |
14 | Audi Q7 | SUV | 48.300,84 £ | 289 | 167,42 £ |
15 | Porsche Cayenne | SUV | 73.983,02 £ | 445 | 166,25 £ |
16 | Citroen C3 | Small Car | 14.595,00 £ | 88 | 165,85 £ |
17 | Opel Corsa 3-doors | Small Car | 18.226,06 £ | 111 | 164,20 £ |
18 | Fiat Panda | Small Car | 12.629,43 £ | 77 | 164,02 £ |
19 | VW Passat | Middle Class | 34.578,48 £ | 211 | 163,88 £ |
20 | Skoda Fabia | Small Car | 14.485,40 £ | 93 | 156,60 £ |
21 | BMW 3er | Middle Class | 33.473,74 £ | 221 | 151,46 £ |
22 | Lexus LS | Limousine | 62.133,30 £ | 416 | 149,36 £ |
23 | Dacia Duster | SUV | 17.092,60 £ | 115 | 148,63 £ |
24 | Opel Astra | Compact | 21.085,14 £ | 145 | 145,41 £ |
25 | Peugeot 3008 | SUV | 24.641,22 £ | 170 | 144,95 £ |
26 | Dacia Sandero | Small Car | 12.054,96 £ | 85 | 141,82 £ |
27 | BMW X5 | SUV | 53.047,73 £ | 396 | 134,13 £ |
28 | Nissan Qashqai | Compact | 18.882,97 £ | 141 | 133,92 £ |
29 | VW Tiguan | SUV | 24.566,41 £ | 184 | 133,51 £ |
30 | Peugeot 308 | Compact | 24.679,98 £ | 187 | 132,33 £ |
31 | Volvo XC40 | SUV | 28.360,81 £ | 218 | 130,39 £ |
32 | Opel Corsa | Small Car | 14.253,40 £ | 110 | 129,58 £ |
33 | Toyota Yaris | Small Car | 13.218,20 £ | 106 | 124,70 £ |
34 | Renault Captur | Small Car | 14.615,41 £ | 119 | 123,34 £ |
35 | VW Golf | Compact | 22.774,17 £ | 188 | 121,46 £ |
36 | Toyota 4Runner | SUV | 31.999,70 £ | 270 | 118,52 £ |
37 | Skoda Octavia | Compact | 21.549,93 £ | 184 | 117,12 £ |
38 | MINI Cooper Hardtop 2 Doors | Small Car | 20.915,85 £ | 181 | 115,56 £ |
39 | Honda Pilot | SUV | 30.895,59 £ | 280 | 110,34 £ |
40 | Mazda CX-5 | SUV | 23.808,30 £ | 219 | 108,96 £ |
41 | Renault Clio | Small Car | 15.899,47 £ | 147 | 108,53 £ |
42 | Fiat 500 | Small Car | 14.283,43 £ | 148 | 96,84 £ |
43 | Peugeot 208 | Small Car | 14.893,90 £ | 157 | 94,87 £ |
44 | Ford Focus Hatchback | Compact | 20.714,45 £ | 261 | 79,37 £ |
45 | Ford Fiesta | Small Car | 12.395,95 £ | 159 | 78,21 £ |
Further findings:
- The Smart EQ Fortwo is the most expensive small car in the ranking. At £253 per horsepower unit, the two-seater comes in 6th in the ranking.
- The cheapest small car in the ranking, the Ford Fiesta, costs £78 per horsepower unit and £12,395 overall.
- The cheapest compact class in the ranking is the Ford Focus Hatchback. For £20,714 you get 261 units of horsepower – £79 per unit.
- The most expensive compact class in the ranking is the Audi A3 Sportback, with a price tag of £27,463 and a horsepower price of £179.5 per unit.
- The most expensive SUV in the ranking is the Peugeot 2008, with an average price tag of £22,350. In terms of horsepower, it costs £205 per unit.
- The cheapest SUV in the ranking is the Mazda CX-5. Its £23.808 price tag will get you 219 horsepower units, £108 each.
- The Ferrari 488 GTB has 670 horsepower units and is the cheapest sports car in the ranking. With an average purchase price of £204,406, each horsepower unit costs £305.