Ford is heavily promoting its ECOnetic technology, which promises extremely low fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. With the official help of Ford, two Norwegians, Knut Withil and Henrik Borchgervink set out to prove that the technology delivers what it promises.

They took a bog-standard Ford Mondeo wagon 1.6-liter diesel ECOnetic, filled up the fuel tank with 70 liters of diesel and started their quest to find out how far it would take them.

The starting point was the port of Murmansk in Russia. The pair crossed Norway and drove continuously for 40 hours before running out of fuel 2,161.5 km (1,243 miles) later in the city of Uddevalla in Sweden.

The 115HP Mondeo ECOnetic achieved an average fuel consumption of just 3.2 lt/100 km (73.5 mpg), bettering the official consumption announced by Ford by 25%.

“Considering the rough road conditions we faced in the early part of the journey in Russia, followed by 1,000 km of soaking wet roads and strong headwinds through Finland and Sweden, the fuel consumption is even more impressive”, said Borchgervink, implying that in more favorable conditions the pair could have achieved even better mileage.

PHOTO GALLERY