The cost of filling a 55-litre family car with unleaded is now £79.72
Drivers can now save up to £25.60 per tank over last year’s prices, but fuel wholesale cost continues to fall
The price of petrol has dropped to 145p per litre for the first time in 18 months – but the RAC, which has praised the news, claims it should be 3p lower.
One litre of unleaded costs 144.95p as of 14 May, which stands as the fuel’s lowest price since 3 November 2021, when the average price was 146.9p.
This means the cost of filling a 55-litre family car, such as a Volkswagen Golf, with petrol will cost you £79.72.
The price of diesel has also fallen, with the average price 154.31p as of 14 May. This is its lowest price since 28 February 2022 and represents a near-5p decrease on last month’s figure (159.43p).
Motorists can now expect to pay £84.87 to fill a 55-litre tank.
These prices represent a marked decrease on last summer’s figures, when petrol peaked at 191.5p on 3 July and diesel at 199.09p on 25 June.
After a reduction of 46.55ppl on petrol and 44.78ppl on diesel, motorists are now saving £25.60 per tank of petrol and £24.62 per tank of diesel.
RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “Seeing the price of unleaded fall back under 145p a litre for the first time in 18 months is good news for the country’s 19 million petrol car drivers. This means it’s now nearly £26 cheaper to fill up a family-sized petrol car this summer compared to last year, when a litre hit the record price of 191.5p.”
This news comes after the recent revelation that the pump price of diesel should be 16p per litre cheaper as its wholesale price continues to fall.
Diesel was reported at 6p per litre cheaper than petrol on the wholesale market yet continued to be more expensive than petrol on the forecourt.
Given this drop in wholesale prices, the RAC said drivers should be paying 137p for a litre of diesel, not 154.31p, and 142p for unleaded.
Williams added: “While it’s good news diesel has also dropped below 155p a litre for the first time since the end of February last year, drivers of the UK’s 12 million diesel cars and countless businesses who rely it to fuel their vehicles should be paying 20p a litre less, as its wholesale price is now 4p lower than petrol’s.
“With the delivered wholesale prices of both petrol and diesel at 110p and 105p respectively, drivers should be paying no more than 142p and 137p, and that’s factoring in an above-average 10p-a-litre retailer margin.”
One independent retailer in Shropshire is currently charging 131.9p for a litre of diesel – 22p below the national average.
It has also been found that, in Northern Ireland, the forecourt price of a litre of diesel averages 147.7p – 13p less than on UK forecourts as a whole.
Source: Autocar
