I've seen a lot of engine talk on here where people are referencing the ps. Saying that its the 100ps model etc. And I had no idea what that meant.

I Googled it and it seems that ps stands for PferdeStarke, which literally translates into horse strength from German, or Horse Power in other words.

Since when is everyone using ps instead of bhp? I've never heard that used as a reference before, is it a European thing?

Yes, PS is the European equivalent of the British bhp / Brake Horse Power & you'll see car manufacturers stating both measurements of engine power output

It's the Kw output I get confused with. I've never used that before so don't know anything about it. PS I learnt about at college so that's easy

kw / kilowatt is another British term

The term Watt is named after the Scottish engineer James Watt

Ford of Europe is based in Germany so we get all the figures in PS.

They tend to be easier to remember numbers too.

I'd love to say my Focus is 250 bhp, but I think it works out as 247.

250PS is easier to remember though.

I don't know how I got this far in my life without hearing it referred to as PS before.

The conversion is 1 PS = 0.9863201652997627 hp.

I think there was a push for KW a few years ago but it never really got off the ground. Sounds to much like a light bulb.

PS is a fairly recent term in the U.K.

European nonsense & all that jazz :)

What/how does Kw relate to cars though. Are the engines hooked up to some form of turbine and measured on electrical output then all of that converted to Ps/BHP or the other way around?

It is just another unit for expressing the power output of the engine.

Power is Watts, but people are much more familiar with understanding the performance of a vehicle from its bhp/PS figure.

It is a bit like miles and kilometres.

Different units for the same thing.

P.S. is the metric measurement, as opposed to the British imperial measurement of b.h.p.

The French used C.V. ( Cheval Vapeur ) - hence the Citroen 2CV - or basically 2 horsepower

Mighty car mods is KW this KW that! Everythings kw! Although they're kind enough to translate for us brits!

My initials are also KW! Aha

Mighty car mods is KW this KW that! Everythings kw! Although they're kind enough to translate for us brits!

My initials are also KW! Aha

Ahhh you see mine are MP so no relevance at all to cars, unfortunately I'm a politician.

I say stick europe, with your PS's, and Stick you KW's abusers.

Give me a good old pony power any day, you over complicaters :p

Watts are British ( Scottish ) James :)

Kilo is Euro tat :(

Still half tat lol

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