Cost of filling a family diesel car breaks £100 mark – here’s the cheapest place to fill up
Diesel has now climbed to an average of 182.77p a litre which means the cost of filling a typical 55-litre family car has breached £100 (£100.52) for the first time since early December 2022.
With petrol now at 152.83p, a full tank is setting drivers back £84. Unleaded has increased 20p a litre since the start of the conflict and diesel by 40p, making a full tank £11 and £22 more expensive respectively.
“RAC analysis of wholesale fuel data points towards the price of petrol potentially stabilising if the cost of oil doesn’t increase further, although diesel still looks likely to rise,” said RAC Head of Policy Simon Williams.
Supermarkets the cheapest option to fill up
Separate data published by the AA shows average petrol prices at supermarkets have opened a 7.55p-a-litre gap with non-supermarket rivals, up 1.5p on the week before.
Fuel price data provided to the AA, which is averaged from the CMA interim scheme, shows that supermarkets last week averaged 144.5p a litre for petrol as opposed to an average of 152.05p among oil company and independent sites.
The week before, the petrol price difference was 6.05p, with supermarket petrol averaging 139.9p versus 145.95p elsewhere. In the week before hostilities broke out in the Middle East, the supermarket versus non-supermarket price gap was 5.4p.
Diesel at supermarkets last week averaged 169.5p as opposed to 178.3p elsewhere.
It helps to explain why drivers were drawn to the supermarkets last weekend, leading to pressure on supply at those forecourts. The AA had previously warned motorists that this might happen and to consider going to other nearby fuel stations to pay a bit more but avoid wasting time, fuel and money in queues.
Across the Channel, the same thing was happening. In France, fuel stations under pressure from demand were dotted across the country, according to Sunday’s mapping of forecourts that had run low on fuel or were dry. As in the UK, the majority were supermarket or discount store locations.
Even so, on Sunday evening, only 1.6% of updates on French forecourts reported those running low on fuel, with just 0.2% completely out. Shortages in the UK were also largely limited, predictably happening mainly in cities and at the weekend.
UK driver refuelling habits
AA analysis of UK driver refuelling habits, taken from polling of 13,045 drivers two weeks before the start of the Middle East conflict, shows that 60% of motorists always keep at least a quarter of a tank in reserve before deciding to fill up.
Only one in seven runs their tank down to the warning light before heading to the pumps.
However, that increases to a third among drivers aged between 25 and 44, who are also the group most likely to be budgeting their fuel spend to a set amount. Among those drivers, 46.5% have been trying to get by on £40 of fuel each time they fill up, before the surge in pump prices.
It shows that the majority of drivers always have 100 miles in reserve before filling up, probably for emergencies but also likely because of the experience of fuel strikes, protests and price surges after Covid and with the Ukraine war in recent years. That gives them good fuel resilience and the option to avoid forecourt queues by either going to another fuel station or coming back later.
It also helps to explain why there hasn’t been a repetition of the queues that followed the Francis Maude ‘jerry can’ episode of 2012.
However, there is a select group of drivers that is vulnerable to price surges and, in running the fuel in their tanks lower to maintain their usual trips, is more likely to be pressured when it comes to finding fuel. However, they are a minority.
“With drivers getting hammered by big price increases since they last filled up, it’s no wonder they are seeking out the cheaper fuel stations. These tend to be supermarkets, for now,” says Luke Bosdet, the AA’s spokesman on pump prices.
“Pressure on supermarket supply comes at predictable times and places: weekends and cities. However, generally speaking, the AA notes that disruptions have not been widespread and have been quickly resolved when they happen. The AA’s 2,700 patrols have not reported shortages, nor has the AA seen an increase in breakdowns for ‘out of fuel’.”
Bosdet adds: “It is amazing to see drivers in France also flocking to supermarkets and putting their forecourts under strain. The mirrored behaviour has been a bit of a revelation, although probably just as predictable.
“Inevitably, prices at the superstores will start to catch up with their rivals as new supply brings in the higher-cost fuel. But with views of the AA App price tracker up 500%, it shows how hard drivers are looking to find the cheaper fuel.”
