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.
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Motorists can now expect to pay £84.87 to fill a 55-litre tank.
The price of fuel is not a great concern judging by the way most motorists consume it. Why use a car to drive a mile down the road, take the kids to school etc - and is it really necessary to use full bore acceleration away followed by hard braking at every opportunity beteween traffic lights when a bit of anticipation would allow smoother less interrupted progress? Then there is the choice of vehicle, the most popular type currently being the least efficient.
Petrol is pretty cheap and is obviously only one component of the cost of a car (compare with depreciation). It also has gone up far less than other goods and services over the last couple of years, at least here in Australia ($1.60-2.00/litre)
In our area, unleaded dropped fron 150 to 148 a couple of weeks ago....come bank holiday, all had gone back to 150. I say 150 because although they advertise 149.9, you cant actually buy 1 litre as ther is no .9 coinage! How is this legal - mis-representation?
Anyway, if this pricing scandal (for a non-luxury item), is continuing...without Government intervention, surely it is time for them to be removed from office. They are elected - by the people, to represent the people. They are sitting on their hands enjoying the extra vat take!
They are not representing the interests of their electorate for whom fuel is a basic necessity, (for travel and heating homes),
Dont for a moment think that the other rabble (Labour) would look after our interests any better.
Meanwhile we have to struggle by, also creating enormous service bills through driving on roads unfit for purpose, and filling the tax-take coffers for waste on a monumental scale, whilst MP's throw insults at each other across the House of Commons....making no forward progress - just burning through our taxes.
Its time for a completely new look at how this country is managed I am afraid.