The price of petrol has finally fallen to below 150p per litre for the first time in almost a year after 2022 saw record high prices at the pumps.
Data from Experian showed that the average price of a litre of fuel at UK forecourts on Monday January 9 was 149.7p, a drop of nearly 42p compared to July last year when the price peaked at 191.5p. An average this low has not been seen since the day that Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year.
Meanwhile, the average price of diesel on Monday was 172.2p per litre, down almost 27p compared with the record high of 199.1p last July. Supermarkets came under criticism from the RAC last year for failing to lower their 'unnecessarily high' prices at the pumps to reflect a drop in wholesale costs.
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The motoring organisation called on the so-called 'big four' supermarkets to lower their prices, after reporting that the gap between wholesale prices and what drivers were paying had widened to its largest in a decade. The RAC also advised drivers to shop around at smaller independent forecourts which they said could be offering more competitive prices.
Asda became the first major supermarket to cut its petrol prices last month, quietly knocking an average of 4.5p per litre off unleaded across its 320 stores. The RAC urged other retailers to "catch up quickly", adding that there was "easily" scope for average prices to be reduced by a further 10p per litre.
Even after prices dropped this week, motoring organisations warned that drivers could see the cost of fuel increase once again in the spring. AA fuel price spokesman Luke Bosdet said: "A 41.8p a litre crash in the average pump price of petrol is a huge relief for drivers, cutting £22.99 from the cost of filling the typical car tank."
But he added: "Fuel at 150p a litre is still historically way above the April 2012 record of 142.48p, the previous yardstick of dire pump prices. Worse still, road fuel is set for a 6p jump in March when the fuel duty cut comes to an end."
Last March, the Government introduced a temporary 12-month cut to fuel duty by 5p per litre for petrol and diesel, citing "unique circumstances globally" including the war in Ukraine. The Government said that the cut would save drivers around £2.4bn in total - but this reduction is set to come to an end in just over two months' time, spelling more uncertainty for motorists amid the cost of living crisis.
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