Kilowatts to PS - EV Power Ratings in Metric Horsepower

Reading an EV's Kilowatt Rating as the PS on the Badge

Every electric car sold in Europe is engineered, type-approved and specified in kilowatts. Yet the moment it reaches a showroom the number changes clothes: the tailgate badge says 204, the price list says 286, the launch video shouts 585. Those are PS figures, and each one is simply the kilowatt rating multiplied out. Knowing the multiplier turns a bare kW spec into the number the rest of the brochure is written around.

Conversion factor: 1 kW = 1.359621617 PS, because one metric horsepower is 735.49875 W. A 150 kW hatchback works out at 150 × 1.359621617 = 203.94 PS, which is why its badge reads 204.

Which Kilowatt Figure the Marketing Uses

System power, not motor power

On a dual-motor car the advertised kW is what the battery and inverters will actually deliver together — usually less than the two motor peaks added up.

Boost modes inflate the headline

Launch and overboost settings release extra kilowatts for a handful of seconds. Several brands quote that short-burst value in the badge and the sustained one further down the page.

The badge is a rounded PS

Model names such as 204, 286 and 340 are the converted value snapped to a whole number, so the underlying kilowatt figure is nearly always a clean 150, 210 or 250.

Homologation keeps its own column

The maximum net power measured for type approval can sit below the marketed peak, which is why a technical data page sometimes carries two kilowatt values.

From Spec Table to the Number in the Brochure

Configurators, press packs and comparison sites rarely agree on which unit to print. This is the two-minute routine for lining them up.

Enter the system kilowatts

Type the headline kW from the technical data page — 87, 150, 210, 250. The PS value fills in as you type, and a comma works just as well as a dot for a figure such as 147,5.

Match the result against the badge

Round to a whole number and it should land on the trim name. If it misses by more than one, you have probably picked up a continuous rating rather than the marketed peak.

Reverse it when only PS is given

Older press releases and dealer adverts often print PS alone. Press the swap button (↔) to run PS → kW and recover the engineering figure: 286 PS comes back as 210.4 kW.

Lift the clean number into your shortlist

The copy button hands over the plain value with no unit and no spaces, which is what a spreadsheet cell wants. Ctrl + C inside a field does the same thing.

Check what the kilowatt figure describes: a peak, a short boost value and a continuous rating can all appear on the same car, and converting the wrong one puts you tens of PS away from the badge.

European EVs: System Kilowatts and the Marketed PS

Popular European-market electric cars with the system power they are homologated on and the metric horsepower figure the marketing settles on. Every entry in the PS column is the kilowatt value multiplied by 1.359621617 and rounded.

Model	Drivetrain layout	System power (kW)	Marketed figure (PS)
Fiat 500e	Single motor, front	87 kW	118 PS
Peugeot e-208 GT	Single motor, front	115 kW	156 PS
Volkswagen ID.3 Pro	Single motor, rear	150 kW	204 PS
Renault Megane E-Tech EV60	Single motor, front	160 kW	218 PS
Volkswagen ID.4 Pro	Single motor, rear	210 kW	286 PS
Hyundai Ioniq 5 AWD	Dual motor	239 kW	325 PS
BMW i4 eDrive40	Single motor, rear	250 kW	340 PS
Kia EV6 GT	Dual motor	430 kW	585 PS

The pattern is hard to miss: the kilowatt column is full of round engineering numbers while the PS column is whatever those numbers happen to convert to. Product planners settle on 150 or 210 kW first, and the 204 or 286 on the tailgate falls out of the arithmetic afterwards.

What Helps When You Are Cross-Shopping

Walk a whole price list without clearing fields

Both boxes stay editable and update live, so you can run every trim of a range through in one pass instead of resetting between models.

Flip it when the advert only quotes PS

The swap button turns the page around, so a used listing headed "286 PS" gives back the kilowatt rating the car was approved on.

Other units when the press pack switches

Searchable dropdowns on both sides carry the whole power range, so a motor quoted in plain watts or a charging figure in megawatts is handled on the same page.

Figures ready for a comparison sheet

Results carry up to eight decimals with thousands spaced for readability, and copying strips the unit so nothing needs tidying after a paste.

Questions Buyers Ask About EV Power Badges

Why does a German EV brochure still print PS when there is no engine?

Because buyers have decades of instinct calibrated in PS. Someone who has owned a 150 PS estate knows exactly what that feels like, while 110 kW means nothing emotionally. Manufacturers keep the familiar scale for advertising and model names, and reserve kilowatts for the technical pages where the figure is actually measured.

Is the advertised PS the two motors added together?

Not usually. A dual-motor car quotes system power — what the battery, inverters and both motors deliver together at the wheels. Add the individual motor peaks and you often land on a bigger number than the badge, because the pack cannot feed both units at their maximum simultaneously.

What is overboost, and does the badge use that figure?

Overboost is a brief release of extra power, typically held for somewhere between ten and thirty seconds before thermal limits pull it back. Some brands badge the boosted value and print the sustained one in the small print; others do the opposite. If a converted kilowatt figure lands well short of the badge, the badge is almost certainly the boost number.

How is PS quoted for a plug-in hybrid with both an engine and a motor?

The headline is a combined system figure, and again it is not the simple sum of the two. Engine and motor reach their peaks at different speeds, so the drivetrain is rated where the total is genuinely available. Converting the combined kilowatt value gives the PS on the badge; converting the engine's own kW gives a smaller number that appears nowhere in the marketing.

Why does the homologated kilowatt value differ from the press-release peak?

Type approval measures maximum net power under a defined procedure with the car in a defined state — charge level, temperature and duration all fixed. Marketing is free to quote the peak the drivetrain can hit in ideal conditions. Both are honest, they just answer different questions, so a data page showing two kilowatt values is normal rather than a misprint.

Kilowatts to Metric Horsepower