Price of petrol v diesel,how does this work?

brownie4583

I was watching something on tv recently about the price of unleaded v diesel.Transport companies etc on about diesel being too expensive.
In the past,diesel was quite a bit cheaper than petrol,now for some reason,diesel is roughly 8-10p a litre more!
I recently visited France and unleaded was around 1.60-1.66 euros a litre,diesel was around 1.49-1.54 euros a litre!
So according to my calculations that is £1.30 a litre for unleaded and diesel is £1.21 a litre roughly.
So why is this the other way round in France,and this is pushing up the cost of everything due to higher transport costs etc.
I wonder if the government can answer this?Tax?????

daveyjp

UK tax on petrol and diesel is the same amount. In other Euro Countries tax on diesel is lower.

Hintza

And in days gone by demand for diesel was a lot less than today but I suspect demand might be swinging back slightly in favour of petrol.

banner188

Even though diesel is further up the distillation process, and is cheaper to manufacture, it has to be treated with more additives etc.. because it doesn't burn as cleanly as petrol.

I think that in the past it didn't have to be treated as much in the uk and this meant it was cheaper but since more rigid anti pollution laws it needs greater treatment and therefore costs more. This is also why I have heard about foreign cars not coping well with our diesel because it is so clean and they are built for the diesel in their countries, which is not as "clean".

Thats my take on it, I could be wrong though.

jase1

Which 'foreign' cars would they be, and which are 'British' then?

[Deleted User]

Transport companies moaning about the cost of diesel always makes me laugh. After they moan about it on TV they always say they pass the cost on.

It is always the end consumer who pays for the rise in the cost of diesel.

banner188

jase1 wrote: »

Which 'foreign' cars would they be, and which are 'British' then?

More towards the far eastern cars I suspect. I've heard people say "don't get a jap diesel" etc..
Maybe it's just hearsay.

Hintza

I haven't heard that for cars, but I heard it mentioned in relation to oil heating boilers.

forgotmyname

I wonder if the government can answer this?Tax?????

Errr i can answer that its a TAX. And it makes them a fortune...

Lets give them Joe Public an extra 20p a week off their tax bill, And to cover that we will add the equivalent to £1 a week on fuel duty.

Easy money...

ROY47

20 years ago for example rough figures

number of cars using petrol 5,000 ,000
number of cars using diesel 500,000

Today number of cars using petrol 10,000,000
number of cars using diesel 12,000,000

again rough figure
Please don't start arguing about exact number of petrol vs diesel

where is the biggest tax rip off now ??

Diesel , the more cars that use diesel , the government have realised we can get more tax off the motorist now

forgotmyname

More important... Why does a litre of cooking oil now cost over £1 a litre
when it used to be 27p?
Until they put it on the news diesel cars run on it.

Now the price matches that of the fuel.