The average price of petrol has fallen below 145ppl for the first time in 18 months, new fuel price data from the RAC reveals.
The price of a litre of unleaded dropped to 144.95p on Sunday 14 May – its lowest price since 3 November 2021.
Diesel also dipped below 155ppl by hitting 154.31p on Sunday, taking it to its lowest since 28 February last year. This means the cost of a filling a 55-litre family car with petrol is now under £80 (£79.72) while a tank of diesel has reduced to below £85 (£84.87).
Since peaking at 191.5ppl on 3 July 2022, petrol has come down by nearly 47ppl (46.55ppl), while diesel, which reached an all-time high of 199.09p on 25 June, has fallen by nearly 45ppl (44.78ppl).
RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “Seeing the price of unleaded fall back under 145ppl for the first time in 18 months is good news for the country’s 19m petrol car drivers. This means it’s now nearly £26 cheaper to fill up a family-sized petrol car this summer compared with last year when a litre hit the record price of 191.5p.
“While it’s good news diesel has also dropped below 155ppl for the first time since the end of February last year, drivers of the UK’s 12m million diesel cars and countless businesses who rely on it to fuel their vehicles, should be paying 20ppl less, as its wholesale price is now 4ppl less than petrol’s. This is being demonstrated very powerfully by one independent retailer in Shropshire who is currently charging 131.9ppl – more than 22ppl below the UK average. We hope this finally embarrasses the country’s biggest retailers to cut their pump prices significantly.
“As petrol is down 47ppl since early July last year, it is now only a few pence a litre above the [previous] long-standing record high of 142.48ppl which was set in April 2012 and only surpassed in late October 2021. And if diesel were being priced fairly by major retailers it would actually be well under its [previous] long-standing 2012 high of 147.93ppl.
“With the delivered wholesale prices of both petrol and diesel at 110ppl and 105pplpl respectively, drivers should be paying no more than 142p and 137ppl, and that’s factoring in an above-average 10p-a-litre retailer margin.”
