UK diesel prices hits record high £1.83 per litre making it cheaper to run an Electric Car

Diesel fuel prices hit a new record high Less than two months after Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a 5p a litre cut on the average fuel price, diesel prices have now reached a record high price of 183.9p a litre.

This has also driven up the price of electric car charging at home, which is 43% more expensive than a year ago.

AA fuel spokesman Luke Bosdet warned that increased prices at the pumps would affect the cost of other goods as hauliers passed on the extra costs. He said: “Record pump prices not only hit families at the pump but also when they shop, get a delivery or call out a repair person.”

But EVs are still much cheaper to run than petrol and diesel cars, despite increasing prices, EV drivers face lower bills than those with petrol or diesel cars.

Comparison site Love My EV lists the rates for EDF’s GoElectric 35 as 44.69p per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) during the day and 4.5p/kWh at night. The Octopus Go tariff costs 35.04p/kWh during the day and 7.5p/kWh at night. Both figures are based on supplying a home in south Wales.

There are 460,000 EVs currently in the UK, according to the Volkswagen Financial Service report, and just 300,000 home charger points installed.

Nelmes says “We estimate the average UK motorist would spend £1,028 per year on petrol and £987 per year on diesel. That’s up from £796 a year on petrol and £747 a year on diesel a year ago,” he says. “That means that the fuel cost savings available to petrol and diesel drivers who switch to EVs this year are £779 for petrol drivers and £738 for diesel drivers.”

The RAC Foundation’s Steve Gooding called on the Chancellor to do more to ease pressure on drivers. He said: “The Chancellor can’t be blamed for the soaring cost of oil but he could and should go further in cutting the rate of duty.

“Whilst all the attention is on the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the Chancellor continues to quietly take in taxation only just less than 50% of everything that drivers pay on the forecourt.

“There has been a lot of criticism of the windfall profits being made by companies like BP and Shell, but let’s not forget that record oil prices are also bringing in extra for the Treasury in the form of VAT which is levied not just on the product price of petrol and diesel, but also the duty element.”

Charging

Many councils have taken advantage of the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme and are installing more and more charging points around cities to promote the uptake of new electric vehicles.