Putting the non-EV vs hybrid EV vs full EV issue aside, how do you feel about petrol/diesel pricing in your country right now?

Petrol and Diesel fule were nver "cheap" in the UK, which has used a similar compound tax since the introduction of Value Added Tax.

(Retail Price + Excise Duty) + VAT. The VAT is presently 20%.

So the higher the retail cost of the fuel itself, the higher the tax because those are by percentages.

Diesel was much cheaper than petrol to buy, and of course the significantly more efficient fuel, until really only quite recently (the 2000s? I can't remember). Then a scare about the exhaust's particulates especially form engines in pooor condition, and the nitrous-oxides found in petrol and indeed hydrogen and l.p.g.* exhausts too; pushed the government into raising the Excise Duty until Diesel is now more expensive.


For some years the Diesel was probably still the more economical fuel; and faced with environmental legislation the engine manufacturers vastly improved the combustion and exhaust characteristics - including introducing the urea-based cracking of Nitrous Oxide back to nitrogen and oxygen.

The politicians and decidedly-"green", green campaigners cannot grasp this though, and still portray Diesel as far nastier than petrol.


Then along came some American property-speculator elected to run a nation that imagines it owns the world, and he decides to attack Iran for his own reasons....

Up went the costs for everyone, although they do fall and rise again, irregularly...


Presently, in the UK, petrol costs at least £1.60 / litre; Diesel £1.80 / litre; but I have seen higher and in places the latter is now more than £2 / litre (>£9.10 / Gallon)

Those prices are on the ordinary roads. The motorway service-stations charge typically anything up to 20p/litre (approaching £1/gallon) more, so I plan long journeys so as not to refuel at those if at all possible.


This particularly hits transport companies, farmers, builders, quarriers, etc.

The railways too, as they have many routes still not electrified, and still use more Diesel than electric traction for heavy goods haulage, although of course far less pro-rata than equivalent road transport.

I don't know if the railway companies pay the same prices for the fuel or if the Duty is low or exempt, as it is or was for farming and marine use fuel. A dye added to the duty-free oil to allow auditing is detectable even after re-filling with road fuel! Even for the user of Excise Duty-free fuel-oil, the war in the MIddle East has still inflated the cost.

The bus fares have been capped by the government to try to encourage using buses rather than cars; but if the compensation from general taxes falls below that necessary, in the face of raised fuel, employment and other costs generally, we will simply lose many services.



I have been retired for some years now, so no more 120miles / week commuting on a mix of town and rural roads. I use the buses for a lot of local journeys, even walk into town (about two miles each way), and have a rail-card that discounts my infrequent train journeys by a third. One 60-mile round-trip by train I took last week cost less than driving than would have done.

However I also make social and leisure journeys, to places served poorly or not at all by public transport.

Luckily I drive a modest Renault whose 1200cc petrol engine returns about 45mpg if I drive sensibly.

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*Liquified Petroleum Gas

My wife has an EV.

She thinks the whole world paying for Trump inflated fuel prices is absolutely hilarious.

Pointing and laughing at people isn’t something she has a reputation for. But the news and petrol station prices bring it out.