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Kilowatts to Horsepower (kW to hp)

Power can be written in kilowatts or in one of three horsepower units. Enter the kilowatt figure and the converter divides it by the size of each horsepower — 0.74569987158227022 kW, 0.746 kW or 0.73549875 kW — and shows every step of the arithmetic.

How to convert kilowatts to horsepower

One imperial (mechanical) horsepower is 550 ft-lbf/s, exactly 745.69987158227022 watts, which is 0.74569987158227022 kilowatts, so the power in horsepower is the power in kilowatts divided by 0.74569987158227022: P(hp(I)) = P(kW) / 0.74569987158227022.

For example, a 10 kW motor delivers 10 kW / 0.74569987158227022 ≈ 13.4102208959503 hp(I), which is about 13.41 imperial horsepower.

Electrical horsepower — the unit used for electric motors and air conditioners — is defined as exactly 746 watts, that is 0.746 kilowatts, so divide by 0.746 instead: 10 kW / 0.746 ≈ 13.4048257372654, about 13.405 hp(E).

Metric horsepower (PS, cv or ch) is defined as exactly 735.49875 watts, that is 0.73549875 kilowatts, so divide by 0.73549875: 10 kW / 0.73549875 ≈ 13.596216173039, about 13.596 hp(M).

About the units

A kilowatt is 1000 watts: an energy flow of 1000 joules every second. One kilowatt also equals 1,000,000 milliwatts.

Horsepower survives in three close but different sizes — exactly 745.69987158227022 W mechanical, 746 W electrical and 735.49875 W metric — which is why one kW figure converts to three slightly different hp numbers.

Rule of thumb: one kilowatt is a little over one and one-third horsepower — about 1.341 hp(I), about 1.340 hp(E) and about 1.360 hp(M) — so a 75 kW engine is about 100.6 hp(I) and a 100 kW engine about 134.1 hp(I).