In the current year, fuel was more expensive than it has been since 2013. That comes from data from the ADAC. November was even the most expensive month of fueling in history: up to the end of November, the national average price for E 10 premium gasoline was 1.514 euros per liter, for diesel it was 1.373 euros. For the year as a whole, even slightly higher final scores can be expected because diesel and E 10 were still more expensive in December, according to ADAC expert Jürgen Albrecht. Roughly speaking, it comes to an increase of 26 to 27 cents for E 10 compared to the previous year, for diesel it should be around 27 cents. “With E 10 there was a difference of almost 40 cents between the most expensive and the cheapest day, which is extraordinary,” said Albrecht.
Drivers should use their market power, advises the expert
The most important driver for this was the development of the oil price. The easing corona restrictions ensured increasing demand, but supply remained scarce because large producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Russia were only cautiously expanding their production. Prices rose significantly in 2021: from $ 50 per 159-liter drum at the beginning of the year to more than $ 85 at times in November. After that, the markets gave way again a little. However, the price increase was extremely erratic. As a result of the discovery of the new Omikron corona variant in November, for example, oil prices crashed, but then recovered. The high energy costs also had an impact on import prices overall in November: According to the Federal Statistical Office, they rose by 24.7 percent compared to the same month last year, more than they have been since the oil crisis in the 1970s.
At the beginning of the year, the end of the VAT cut and the introduction of the CO₂ price coincided. At the pump, this had an effect of more than ten cents per liter. In 2022, the CO₂ price will only increase by five euros per ton – that’s around one and a half cents per liter of fuel. “That gets lost in the fluctuations that you have during the day,” said Albrecht. These fluctuations between the maximum price in the morning rush hour and the low in the evening are up to seven cents. Drivers should use this as well as price differences between petrol stations, advised the ADAC expert. “Petrol and diesel are homogeneous goods, there are no relevant differences in quality.” If the motorists used their market power, they could provide cheaper fuel themselves, because the current prices still had room for improvement. “And as a rule, I don’t have to refuel within three minutes, but have a choice.”