>
The average price of a liter of diesel at petrol stations has risen above 190 pence again this week – the first time in nearly three months that it has crossed the £1.90 per litre ceiling.
On Thursday, the average price in the UK rose to 190.12p, after a low of 180.18pa-litres at the end of September.
The wholesale price of diesel has risen faster than gasoline in recent weeks as demand has increased and some European countries rely on the fuel for heat and power generation during Russia’s cuts in gas exports.
As a result, the average price of diesel is nearly 24 p-per-litre higher than unleaded diesel, translating into a £13 difference when filling a family car’s tank.
Now look away when you are driving a diesel-powered vehicle! The average price of a liter of diesel in the UK has risen above £1.90 this week for the first time since early August, new figures show.
With diesel hitting £190.12p yesterday, the average price of unleaded in the UK has also risen above £1.65, reaching £166.17p on Thursday, according to the AA.
For a car with a 55 liter fuel tank, the cost to fill a diesel model is now £104.46, while a petrol equivalent is £91.39.
The price of petrol is still 25 cents per liter below the all-time record price at the beginning of July, while diesel is less than 9 cents lower than the record of 1 July.
This week marks the first time diesel has risen above £1.90 a liter on average since 3 August, the auto group confirmed.
The 10p rise in the past month will hit entrepreneurs and the self-employed even harder.
For motorists filling the fuel tank of an average-sized Transit van, it now costs £8 more than on 28 September, rising to £152.10 this week, as opposed to £144.14 at the end of last month.
To make the misery of diesel car owners even greater, the price difference with petrol has now risen to 23.95p.
The price gap between a liter of unleaded and diesel has widened in recent months as Russia reduced its gas supplies.
This has led to an increase in the use of diesel for heating and power generation, especially in continental Europe.
And as diesel demand has increased in recent weeks, the end of the so-called driving season in the US has seen gasoline demand plummet, widening the price differential between the two fuels.
An announcement by OPEC+ earlier this month that it would cut oil production by two million barrels per day only widened the price differential.
The price difference with petrol has now risen to almost 24 p-per-litre. It means filling up an average diesel family car is now £13 more expensive than an unleaded equivalent
Thee AA, which tracks wholesale costs of both fuels, says the price hike at the pumps should level off “soon.”
For now, fuel experts say drivers should refuel at supermarkets, which are likely to hold back some of the price hikes initially.
But eventually they will also be forced to raise their prices.
Luke Bosdet, the AA’s fuel price expert, says the news comes at the worst time, with the clocks to be turned back this weekend and the colder and darker evenings.
Ultimately, this means drivers will use their car’s lights, wipers and heaters more, making their engine work harder and thus use more fuel.
“This is not only bad news, but also bad timing. The clocks going back this weekend will soon shift the evening rush hour into darkness. Increased use of lights, wipers and heaters in the winter months makes vehicle engines work harder and consume more fuel
Luke Bosdet, AA fuel price expert
“Getting one mile less from a gallon of fuel is equivalent to using more than an extra gallon per tank for a car that averages about 45 miles per gallon,” Bosdet said.
Meanwhile, many transport and delivery companies add surcharges to invoices to insulate themselves from higher diesel prices.
‘That quickly passes on those higher costs to customers and thus consumers, further fueling inflation.’
He also points out that fuel consumption in the UK continues to track at near pre-pandemic levels, with more people returning to offices rather than working from home.
Figures released by HMRC this morning show that petrol consumption in the UK remains only about 3 per cent below pre-covid levels, despite a continued 5 to 10 per cent reduction in car traffic since the end of the lockdown.
The AA believes the decline in car traffic is due to more drivers either cutting short trips or combining trips to try to counter the impact of the pump’s record prices in July.
Essential trips, such as driving to work, going to school, shopping and visiting relatives, make it difficult for car owners to cut the most fuel consumption.
However, statistics released by the Department for Transport show that car traffic has declined somewhat in the past two weeks – coinciding with rising pump prices and bad weather.
The AA’s report comes the same week that Shell announced a profit of nearly £8.2 billion ($9.5 billion) between July and September – more than double what it made in the same period the year before.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on it, we can earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money and use it for free. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.