Diesel drops below £1.50-a-litre for the first time in 15 MONTHS

The average diesel pump price has fallen below £1.50 pa-litre for the first time since 1 February 2022, meaning it is 50 pence below the record highs drivers faced in July.

Today, diesel costs an average of 149.45 cents per litre, after it was last below 150 cents on February 1, 2022 (149.99 cents per litre).

However, 5p of the 50p drop is the fuel duty cut introduced by Rishi Sunak in March 2022 – extended by the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, in the Spring Budget.

The AA said the big drop was still “no cause for celebration,” adding that the economy was still “swayed by historically high pump prices.”

Diesel peaked at 199.07 pa-litres on 1 July 2022, when filling the 80-litre fuel tank of a standard van cost an eye-watering £159.26.

This week the cost to get a Ford Transit style utility vehicle over the brim is £119.56 – a saving of nearly £40 per tank.

While this is a major boost for business and puts downward pressure on transportation costs and thus inflation, diesel prices still remain higher than the pre-pandemic record of 147.89 pa-litres, set more than a decade ago. established in April 2012.

This shows that UK motorists and the economy “remain under pressure from historically high pump prices,” the company said.

The AA’s record also showed petrol fell to 143.45 pl on Wednesday – a level last seen in October 2021 and down 48 pence from its peak of 191.53 p. early July 2022.

Pre-pandemic, the worst British drivers had endured was 142.48p in April 2012.

Luke Bosdet, the AA’s fuel price expert, said: ‘You would think that a nearly 50p-a-litre crash in the diesel pump price would be a major cause for celebration.

“But every week, AA members continue to express their anger and frustration at pump price fluctuations dictated by where they live.”

Bosdet said a motorist contacted the AA, insisting he had paid 135.9 pa-litres for diesel at a supermarket in Wantage – only to drive some 40 miles south to Winchester to find the same supermarket chain who charged 151.9 pence – a huge 16 pa-litre difference, equating to a difference of £8.80 when filling up an average family car (55-litre tank).

“Like so many drivers, he lashed out at ‘gas station owners who have collectively and shamelessly deliberately pushed an extra unreasonable increase on already crushing price increases,'” Bosdet said.

“And so the UK diesel price scandal continues, and the judgment from the Competition and Markets Authority can’t come soon enough.”

The news that diesel has fallen to a 15-month low comes just a week after the CMA released a statement saying it found evidence that last year fuel retailers – especially supermarkets – had raised fuel prices more than necessary to increase profit margins.

“As a result of these increasing margins, average supermarket pump prices in 2022 appear to be about 5 pence per liter more expensive than they would have been if their average percentage margins had remained at 2019 levels,” the CMA said.

It is also concerned about the ‘continued higher margins on diesel compared to petrol’ so far this year, which ‘appear to be taking longer than expected’.

The watchdog’s chief executive, Sarah Cardell, said she was not satisfied with evidence from supermarkets, so she will call for “formal interviews to get to the bottom of what’s going on.”

In 2019 average margins were 6.5 pence for every liter of petrol and 6.9 pence for diesel, the RAC says.

The calculation based on current prices shows that the retail margin on unleaded is 9.9 pence per litre, which is about 7 percent of the total cost of fuel.

The average margin on diesel is three times greater than before the pandemic, reaching 21.1 pence per liter and accounting for 14 percent of the total price consumers pay.

The CMA’s full report will be published in early July.