Power Converter

Convert engine power between kW, mechanical hp, and metric PS

All conversions use kilowatts (kW) as a canonical intermediate value, which avoids rounding errors when chaining between units. Results maintain full floating-point precision internally and are formatted for readability.

Mechanical horsepower and metric horsepower are different units and are never interchangeable, which is why this converter always shows them separately.

Units supported

• Kilowatts (kW) — the SI unit, used on vehicle registration documents across Europe and for electric vehicle motors.
• Mechanical horsepower (hp) — the imperial definition (550 ft·lbf/s = 0.745699871… kW), used in the UK and US. Sometimes written bhp.
• Metric horsepower (PS) — the continental European definition (75 kgf·m/s = 0.73549875 kW exactly), used in German (PS), French (ch), and Italian (CV) specifications.

Reference values

• 100 kW = 134.1 hp = 136.0 PS
• 1 PS = 0.9863 hp — metric horses are slightly smaller
• A typical small hatchback: 70–100 hp
• A typical hot hatch: 200–300 hp