- We calculate the gallons of diesel needed to Mr Cummings to drive 264 miles
- Calculations suggests a journey from North London to Durham could be completed with half a tank of fuel in his Land Rover Discovery Sport
- Using real-world economy figures, a 528-mile round trip would have been impossible without stopping for fuel
The revelation that Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister's chief adviser, drove from Islington in London to County Durham during lockdown restrictions with his wife suffering from coronavirus has been headline-grabbing news since Friday.
Some have questioned if the 264-mile journey was feasible in his diesel Land Rover Discovery Sport without having to stop for fuel after Mr Cummings claimed during a press conference on Monday that he may have only filled up once during the return trip to the family home in the capital.
We've used What Car?'s True MPG calculator to work out how far his Land Rover can go before it empties its fuel tank - and reveal seven mid-size SUVs with the more frugal engines in real-world driving conditions that are best for long-haul drives outside of lockdown.
Cummings' car used for the 264-mile trek north was his 2019 Land Rover Discovery Sport diesel.
The seven-seat SUV has a 2.0-litre engine linked to a mild-hybrid drivetrain, a 9-speed automatic gearbox and four wheel drive.
His D180 model is an R-Dynamic HSE specification, which costs from £48,300 in showrooms today.
The Discovery Sport has a 65-litre (14.3-gallon) fuel tank and the official fuel economy based on a lab test is a claimed 38.9mpg - though What Car?'s real-world test found the figure would be closer to 33.6mpg when driving on the road.
We calculated that in order to cover 264 miles with the official fuel economy statistics of 38.9mpg, the Land Rover Discovery Sport would only use approximately 6.8 gallons of fuel from its 14.3-gallon tank.
Using the What Car? True MPG figure of 33.6mpg, the trip to Durham from the capital could be completed using 7.9 gallons.
That means, even with around half a tank, Mr Cummings would have been able to drive to his parents' home without pulling over for fuel - though only he will know how much diesel was in his Land Rover before he set off.
However, would Mr Cummings have been able to drive all the way home again without visiting a filling stations?
A simple calculations shows it would have been very difficult for Boris Johnson's chief aide to complete the 528-mile round trip back without needing to stop.
With Land Rover's official 38.9mpg claim, just 0.7 gallons of fuel would remain in a brimmed 14.3-gallon fuel tank after a drive of that duration - without taking into account other trips completed between the two journeys, such as driving to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight.
Using What Car?'s more realistic fuel economy figure, the Discovery Sport would need 15.7 gallons of diesel to go from Islington to Durham and back.
That means Mr Cummings would need to pump an extra 1.4 gallons into his car to prevent him and his family from being stranded on the side of the road.