What’s in a tank of fuel? The cars with the best (and worst) driving range in Australia

While impressive performance, cool technology and a lower pricepoint can all be guiding forces when buying a new car, it's often other elements – like real-world fuel economy – that actually have the greatest effect on your ownership experience.

Once you drive away from the dealership, you'll become less preoccupied with those nifty LED tail-lights and more focussed on how many times you have to hit the petrol station in a single week.

Range is dependent on tank size, but also on fuel consumption. While a hatchback might have a smaller fuel tank, it may also be more economical than an SUV or ute with a larger tank, allowing you to extract a bit more distance from your last bowser visit.

On the flipside, a larger car with a huge tank might burn through petrol more easily – forcing you to top up on a more regular basis.

To ascertain the cars with the best ranges, whether petrol or diesel, we compiled every single model sold in Australia according to tank size and quoted combined-cycle consumption figure.

Of course, it's worth noting this consumption figure could be further improved upon when touring is thrown into the mix.

Additionally, this list excludes electric and plug-in hybrid cars to avoid skewing the data in one direction, as the former doesn't have a fuel tank, while the latter has a fuel tank, but tends to list notably lower average fuel consumption by way of its electric power.

We plan to explore both electric car ranges and plug-in hybrid consumption figures in greater detail at a later date.

The resulting range numbers might come as a surprise. Of course, the lower end of the list tends to be populated by sports cars like the Lotus Elise, Porsche 718 or McLaren 570GT – but they're not necessarily the worst offenders.

In fact, the Great Wall Steed ute, with both a small tank and a high quoted fuel consumption, has a range that's rock-bottom at just 456.7km per tank. That's worse than the second-lowest Lamborghini Aventador with 462km of range.

The diesel-powered Toyota LandCruiser Prado, meanwhile, tops the list thanks to its 150L tank and 7.9L/100km of quoted fuel consumption, allowing for 1898.7km of travel. The next best is a diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz E-220d with 1500km of range.

The best-performing small passenger cars are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the hybrid Toyota Prius and hybrid Hyundai Ioniq.

Meanwhile, the SUV with the longest range after the Prado is the Alfa Romeo Stelvio diesel (1333.33km), and the ute that top its class is the diesel-powered Nissan Navara with 1250km of range per tank.

To see the full breakdown, keep reading.