Fuel prices: British drivers "exploited and ripped off"
AA report reveals how our fuel prices compare to rest of Europe.
British motorists are shelling out some of the highest fuel prices in Europe, according to the AA’s latest Fuel Price Report.
According to the AA's figures, the average price of normal unleaded petrol in the UK is 117.24 pence per litre and 119.33 pence per litre for diesel.
Of that, around two-thirds is taken as tax.
However, many other European nations are paying far less. Let’s take a look at how much drivers in other European nations are shelling out for their fuel.
|
Country |
Cost of unleaded (in UK pence per litre) |
Cost of diesel (in UK pence per litre) |
|
Czech Republic |
85.62 |
83.35 |
|
Luxembourg |
89.16 |
74.66 |
|
Austria |
92.00 |
83.40 |
|
Spain |
94.28 |
82.83 |
|
Slovakia |
98.97 |
85.61 |
|
France |
102.74 |
90.58 |
|
Ireland |
103.31 |
94.07 |
|
Germany |
105.09 |
86.96 |
|
Switzerland |
105.21 |
107.25 |
|
Belgium |
109.64 |
88.38 |
|
Sweden |
110.11 |
98.86 |
|
Portugal |
110.42 |
90.30 |
|
Greece |
117.81 |
89.16 |
|
Denmark |
119.21 |
97.05 |
|
Italy |
121.37 |
109.00 |
|
Norway |
124.77 |
107.39 |
|
Netherlands |
125.92 |
96.34 |
As you can see, a handful of counties are currently charging less than £1 a litre for petrol. But even of those charging more than £1, the majority are still charging less than the UK.
As for diesel, you'll only pay more than £1 a litre in Italy, Norway and Switzerland. Little wonder that the AA has described this as the “Great British diesel rip-off”.
Cut the cost of your car insurance
Fuel price transparency
According to the AA, we could learn a lot from our European cousins, where countries like France, Austria and Denmark offer official websites with almost real-time price information which helps drivers find the competitive retailers.
Edmund Kind, president of the AA, said that ordinary diesel drivers hitting European roads this summer will see how they are being “exploited and ripped off” by the UK fuel industry.
He added: “The same drivers will conclude that the UK government wants their tax and their votes but does little to offset the disadvantages the British driving consumer faces – apart from a duty rebate for a couple of dozen of remote rural communities and a very modest fuel price transparency trial along the southern end of the M5, involving just five petrol stations.”
What do you think? Are British drivers being ripped off? Let us know your thoughts in the comments box below.
Cut the cost of your car insurance
More on motoring:
Fully comprehensive car insurance 'myth' fools millions of drivers
Most Recent
Comments
-
This is a rubbish statement by the AA and a poorly researched and written article by Lovemoney. The international price comparison numbers say nothing about whether UK motorists are being "ripped off" by fuel companies because the prices include tax - it is impossible to say anything about the fuel companies from these numbers. As another comment points out, tax is spent on public services - in fact at the moment not enough tax is raised to fund all of our public services. So call the government inefficient, accuse it of providing too much in the way of services, but not of "ripping off" the poor old motorist - be it an old lady on her way to the hospital or some gas guzzling git yakking away on their mobile whilst driving. The nanny states in other countries may indeed provide "official" price comparisons - these are available in the UK from private sources eg petrolprices.com. No need to spend more govt money (funded by yet more fuel tax?) on them. Or maybe the AA, whose private equity owners are sitting on bloated gains from this investment after firing most of the patrolmen, would like to provide such a service instead of mouthing off at half cock.
REPORT This comment has been reported. -
I've run on LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas - basically, patio heater gas) for the past 8+ years. I currently pay £0.49 a litre. The cost of conversion including vat is about £1300-1400. Providing you clock-up enough mileage in a year (I do about 15,000 miles) you'll very quickly recover this outlay in fuel savings. It's less polluting as well. If we get shale gas extraction opperational in this country that product could be used in place of LPG. Many, many trucks in the USA are now converted to run on their shale-gas product.
REPORT This comment has been reported. -
For once, I cannot gripe about our fuel prices up here on Skye. Petrol is currently 117.9p per litre (up from 105.9p a couple of months ago) so only a smidgen above the national average. That's because we get a 5p rebate. Of course, there is a downside, that we have to cover vast distances to get to the nearest big shopping centres, but that is our choice to live here.
REPORT This comment has been reported.
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature
23 July 2015