BHP to PS Converter
Two-way conversion between brake horsepower and metric horsepower — plus a decoder for those oddly specific badge numbers like 136, 204, 272 and 367 PS.
A German brochure says 204 PS. A British road test of the identical car says 201 bhp. Neither is wrong, and the car hasn't lost anything in the Channel crossing. Metric horsepower is simply a smaller unit than brake horsepower, and once you know the size of the gap the badge numbers start making a lot more sense.
Badge Decoder: Common PS Figures in BHP and kW
These are the round PS values European, Japanese and Korean manufacturers actually badge. Find the number on the boot lid and read across.
| Badge (PS) | BHP | kW | Segment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 75 | 74 | 55 | Entry hatchback |
| 90 | 89 | 66 | Small diesel |
| 110 | 109 | 81 | Compact turbo |
| 116 | 114 | 85 | Family gasoline |
| 136 | 134 | 100 | Round 100 kW |
| 150 | 148 | 110 | Mainstream diesel |
| 163 | 161 | 120 | Executive diesel |
| 184 | 181 | 135 | Warm hatch |
| 190 | 187 | 140 | Mid SUV |
| 204 | 201 | 150 | Round 150 kW |
| 245 | 242 | 180 | Hot hatch |
| 272 | 268 | 200 | Round 200 kW |
| 280 | 276 | 206 | The old Japanese ceiling |
| 310 | 306 | 228 | Performance sedan |
| 340 | 335 | 250 | Round 250 kW |
| 367 | 362 | 270 | Six-cylinder sports |
| 421 | 415 | 310 | Fast estate |
| 510 | 503 | 375 | V8 performance |
| 571 | 563 | 420 | Round 420 kW |
| 630 | 621 | 463 | Supercar |
Why Badges Say 136, 204 and 272 Instead of Round Numbers
Those figures look arbitrary until you convert them to kilowatts. Then the pattern is obvious:
- 136 PS = 100.0 kW
- 204 PS = 150.0 kW
- 272 PS = 200.0 kW
- 340 PS = 250.0 kW
- 408 PS = 300.0 kW
Engineering targets are set in kilowatts, because that's the unit of type approval, homologation and every internal spec document in a European engineering department. The PS number on the badge is the output of that decision, not the input. Which is why the marketing figure so often ends in a 4 or a 6 rather than a 0 — it is a converted kilowatt target, rounded.
Once you spot this, converting from the badge stops being guesswork. A 204 PS car is a 150 kW car, and that 150 kW is what appears in field P.2 of the V5C, what your insurer prices, and what a kW-banded tax office charges you on. Our kW to bhp converter works the same relationship from the paperwork end.
How Big Is the PS to BHP Gap in Practice?
Metric horsepower was defined as lifting 75 kg one meter in one second — 735.49875 W. Mechanical horsepower came from 550 foot-pounds per second — 745.699872 W. Two measuring cultures, two definitions, never reconciled.
Gap = 745.699872 ÷ 735.49875 = 1.01387, i.e. PS reads 1.387% higher
The percentage never changes, but the absolute difference grows with power, which is why nobody argues about it on a city car and everybody argues about it on a supercar:
| Power level | Gap in units | Does it matter? |
|---|---|---|
| 100 PS | 1.4 | Rounding noise |
| 200 PS | 2.7 | Explains a "200 bhp" advert on a 197 bhp car |
| 400 PS | 5.5 | Enough to look like a typo |
| 700 PS | 9.6 | Enough to start a comment-section argument |
| 1000 PS | 13.7 | Regularly misreported as a power increase |
The 280 PS Ceiling on Japanese Cars
From the late 1980s, Japanese manufacturers observed a voluntary agreement not to advertise more than 280 PS for domestic-market cars — 276 bhp. It was never a law, and it applied to the published figure rather than to what the engine actually produced, which is why so many performance Japanese cars of that era were independently measured above their claimed output while their brochures all quoted exactly 280 PS.
The agreement was abandoned in the early 2000s. It still matters when you're reading period road tests or importing a used JDM car, because a 280 PS spec line tells you almost nothing about that individual engine's real output.
PS, KM, KS, cv, pk — Same Unit, Different Passport
Metric horsepower changes name at almost every border, which is why the same conversion turns up under a dozen different search terms. PS in Germany, KM in Poland, KS in Czechia and Croatia, pk in the Netherlands, cv in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, hk in Scandinavia, LE in Hungary. All of them are 735.49875 W.
One trap: French and Belgian paperwork also uses chevaux fiscaux (CV fiscaux), which is a tax classification derived from power and emissions, not a measure of engine output. A car can be "7 CV" for tax and 150 PS in reality. If you're working from kilowatts rather than a badge, kW to PS covers all the national abbreviations.
Related Conversions
If your source figure is plain "hp" rather than "bhp", the HP to PS converter is the same maths under a generic label, and bhp to hp explains why those two need no conversion at all. For paperwork use bhp to kW, and for the full comparison of every standard read hp vs bhp vs PS vs kW.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. PS is 735.49875 W, bhp is 745.699872 W. PS is the smaller unit, so the same engine always shows a bigger number in PS.
147.9 bhp, normally printed as 148. On the registration document it is 110 kW.
PS reads 1.387% higher. That's under two units on a 130 bhp hatchback, but about seven units at 500 bhp.
PS. European, Japanese and Korean makers set the marketing figure in metric horsepower — often converted from a round kilowatt target — and UK press releases then translate it into bhp.
A voluntary industry agreement from the late 1980s capped the advertised domestic figure at 280 PS (276 bhp). Several cars measured higher. It was dropped in the early 2000s.
Multiply by 1.0139. So 300 bhp × 1.0139 = 304.2 PS. Reverse it with ×0.98632.
Yes when it means cheval vapeur. But chevaux fiscaux (CV fiscaux) on French paperwork is a tax rating, not engine power — a 150 PS car might be "7 CV".
Indirectly. Insurers and tax offices use the kW figure from the registration document, so converting from the badge instead of the paperwork can land you in the wrong band.