BHP Check: What BHP Is My Car?

A BHP check tells you how much power a car's engine or motor produces, in brake horsepower and kilowatts. Enter the registration in the search box above: the free check shows the make, model, fuel type, engine size and the DVLA and MOT record straight away, and the full report shows the car's power in bhp and kW, with its torque, 0-62 mph time and top speed, from the manufacturer's data. The power figure is in the full report, not the free check.

What BHP is my car?

You can answer that three ways, from quickest to most reliable:

1. The V5C log book. Section P.2, "max. net power", shows the power in kW for many vehicles registered since the early 2000s. Multiply by 1.341 for bhp: 110 kW is about 148 bhp. Older V5Cs often leave P.2 blank.
2. The handbook or the maker's brochure for the exact engine and year. Figures changed between model years, so use the right one.
3. A check by reg. Enter the registration above. The free check confirms the engine size and fuel, so you know which engine you are dealing with; the full report shows the power in bhp and kW for that registration, so you don't have to guess between the 115, 150 and 190 bhp versions of the same badge.

Power is not stamped on the car anywhere. Badges such as "150" or "320d" hint at it, but they are easily changed and several makers use numbers that are not the bhp at all.

BHP, PS, hp and kW: what they mean and how to convert them

All four measure the same thing, the rate at which the engine can do work, in different units. The differences are small but they matter when a figure in an advert is in one unit and the one in the record is in another.

• bhp (brake horsepower): the UK's usual figure, measured at the engine output with a dynamometer ("brake").
• hp (horsepower): in UK adverts this normally means bhp. In the United States "hp" is the same mechanical horsepower.
• PS (Pferdestärke, "metric horsepower"): used by German and many other European makers. It is slightly smaller than a bhp, so the PS figure is always a touch higher than the bhp figure for the same engine.
• kW (kilowatts): the official SI unit, used on the V5C, in EU type approval and for electric cars.

So a car advertised at "150 PS" has about 148 bhp, and one listed at "110 kW" has about 148 bhp too. They are the same engine.

Why the bhp figure matters

• Insurance. Power and performance are among the main things that decide a car's insurance group, and insurers quote on the exact engine. A 115 bhp and a 190 bhp version of the same model can sit several groups apart. Declaring the wrong version can leave a claim open to dispute.
• Young and new drivers. Many insurers limit or load cover for drivers under 25 on cars above a certain power or group. There is no legal bhp limit for a new driver in the UK, but the quotes make the limit for most people.
• Road tax is not based on power. Vehicle excise duty in the UK is based on CO2 emissions for cars registered from March 2001 (plus a list-price supplement for expensive cars registered from April 2017) and on engine size for older cars. A remap that adds power does not change the tax, although it may change the emissions. See our road tax check.
• Performance and towing. Power with the car's weight decides acceleration and how it copes with a load or a caravan. The full report shows the kerb weight and towing capacity next to the power.

BHP vs torque

Power (bhp) is how fast the engine can do work; torque (Nm) is the turning force it produces. Torque is what you feel when you press the accelerator in a high gear; power is what sets the top speed and the acceleration through the gears. Diesel engines and turbocharged petrol engines produce a lot of torque at low revs, which makes them feel strong in everyday driving even with a modest bhp figure. Electric motors deliver their full torque from a standstill. The full report shows both figures for the car, where the manufacturer recorded them.

Typical bhp by engine size

Engine size is a poor guide to power on its own, because turbocharging and tuning change it so much, but these ranges cover most cars on UK roads. Our engine size check shows the exact cc for a registration, free.

Indicative ranges for mainstream cars, not limits. Hybrids quote a combined system output, higher than the engine's alone.

Declared bhp vs actual: remaps and modified cars

The power in the manufacturer's data is what the car left the factory with. A remap (engine software tune), a bigger turbo or an exhaust change can add 20 to 40 per cent on a turbocharged engine, and none of it shows in the record. That has three consequences when you buy:

• Insurance. A remap is a modification and must be declared. If the seller never told their insurer, the car has been driven on cover that may not have been valid, and you will need to declare it on yours.
• Wear. Higher output loads the clutch, gearbox and turbo. Ask for the tuner's invoice and figures; treat a car without them as standard.
• Checking the claim. Only a rolling-road test measures the real output. What a check by reg gives you is the baseline: if the full report shows 148 bhp and the advert says 220, the extra 72 bhp is a modification that should be explained, not a different model.

An engine that doesn't match the car's record at all, rather than a tuned one, is a different matter: compare the engine number in the full report with the one on the block and the V5C. See our engine number check.

What our BHP check shows

The power figure sits in the specification section of the full report, with the rest of the car spec: trim, gearbox, body, economy and dimensions. Not every figure is recorded for every vehicle; power is among the most complete, performance figures less so, and vans and motorbikes have fewer on record.

BHP check FAQs