One of the fuels most used by French motorists appears this week at a price not seen in ten months.
A few weeks before the main summer period, many motorists are closely monitoring fuel prices. It must be said that refueling has been extremely expensive since the liter flirted with two euros, a (bad) habit for about two years and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. At this price, the cost of a journey of 500 or 600 kilometers to go on vacation, including motorway tolls, easily exceeds 100 euros. Good news for the French, recent weeks have seen fuel prices decline significantly throughout the country, even if disparities still remain between regions and service stations.
Among the fuels offered at the pump, however, one is experiencing a more significant decline than the others. However, no longer fashionable at all – after having dominated the automobile market for around fifteen years at the beginning of the century – diesel has seen its price plummet over the past month to the point of having decreased by an average of 8 cents in liter during the last four weeks. The difference on a 40 liter tank carried out in mid-April and mid-May therefore amounts to more than 3 euros. But the gap is even bigger if we go back a little further.
On May 10, 2024, a liter of diesel sold for an average of 1.71 euros at service stations in France. Never this year has its price been so low. We also have to go back ten months, to the end of July 2023, to find any trace of a price lower than what it is today (1.70). If we compare the price of a liter of diesel sold today with that at the beginning of last autumn – which reached an average of 1.94 euros – the difference reaches 23 cents! Owners of cars running on diesel can only rejoice since it equates to around 10 euros on a single fill-up.
Destined to die slowly due to environmental concerns and government incentives to promote electric vehicles and cleaner gasoline engines, diesel vehicles are however still the majority in the French automobile fleet (around 50%). But with the shift towards the electrification of vehicles, manufacturers are increasingly abandoning diesel engines to the point that today sales of new electric vehicles are higher than those of vehicles running on diesel. While waiting to be completely replaced, diesel cars are still in the hands of millions of French drivers in 2024. Motorists who must cross their fingers that this drop in prices continues as long as possible.