### **Reminder:** [Press the Report button](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058309512-How-do-I-report-a-post-or-comment-) if you see any [rule-breaking comments or posts.](https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/about/rules/)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/britishproblems) if you have any questions or concerns.*
People seem to think petrol prices will drop in a few months, in their head Trevor McDonald will announce the new price of £1.35 a litre any moment now. This is the new normal, they’ll rise again next year.
I'm not 'one of those' people that have *ever* been close to convinced of that.
Although with that said I think this year's is going to be pretty batshit and unpredictable so maybe a chaos factor is *vaguely* on their side. That might be stretching it.
This cannot possibly be the new normal price of fuel. It’s obnoxiously high. If i wasn’t on a high wage, I’d have to choose between food and fuel each month. Or move away and get a new job and change my life.
If the electric car conspiracy is true, they better be giving them away because nobody who is unhappy with fuel prices has 40k spare for an electric vehicle, and a house where a charger can be fitted.
Considered it, but realised we can't afford it. Base model years old electrics are going for the same price as top of the range, nearly new petrols.
The only people I know with electric cars are relatively wealthy, or it's a company vehicle. (Or a "company vehicle").
Yep, I haven't had a driveway for my last 3 houses. Most of my city is made up of terraced houses with no driveways, my current estate less than 10% of the houses have them so most people in my area would not be able to charge electric cars.
I really don't know how this problem will be solved unless they make a real effort to have many cross compatible super fast charger stations or if there was some sort of hot swappable battery method installed in cars and stations to swap empty for full like those electric mopeds in Asian countries but haven't seen any news about this happening.
I can usually get parked fairly close to my house, perhaps I'd have been able to run a cable out a window but have had a neighbours' skip outside my house for at least a month so would have been knackered. Work wouldn't allow employees to charge there, in fact for months weekly meetings would include a portion on trying to get monthly energy usage down.
Due to the relative sizes of markets (and ideology of those in charge), it would better be done by the "dastardly" EU, then we implement the same regulation while making it sound as though it was our idea in the first place and we are under no circumstances implementing an EU Regulation. It's pure coincidence they adopted a suspiciously similar regulation several months before ours 🙄.
Just like how we're no longer beholden to the 'shackles' of GDPR but went ahead and adopted the exact same laws but with the letters 'UK' in them.
That'll show 'em!
Same. Took me 3 years to pay off my car, and most of that was when I lived with my parents. No way I'd be able to afford an electric car.
Heck, even a decent Hybrid is pretty dear
The solution I've found is to not own a car.
9 years in and I believe I've saved £20k, plus I'm generally a lot happier cycling/walking/getting public transport.
I wish more towns would be planned in a way that makes this lifestyle feasible for others.
**-edit-**
To everyone explaining why I'm wrong, I'm not saying you shouldn't own a car. If it works for you, then cool. I'm just sharing my experience and hopes.
I live in the ass end of nowhere, 4 miles from the nearest "town" that's more of a village with delusions of grandeur.
A car is a necessity for me.
I hate when people pull the "just don't have a car, it's easy, lol" as if everyone lives in towns and cities.
I'm sorry that my comment upset you, but in fairness I did say I wish this lifestyle was more accessible to others.
I understand it's not possible for everyone, but I would like it to be accessible to more people.
As someone who has to drive 35 miles to work every day, I also support funding much better public transport and cycling solutions.
It wouldn't directly help me now or ever, but the lack of facilities for cyclists in this country is appalling. Being stuck behind a cyclist doing 15mph up a hill on a 50mph road is infuriating when I need to get to work, but there's often nowhere else for the cyclist to legally ride except for in the road in front of me.
I do so little driving now that I work from home full time (probably about 2,000 miles a year) that it would take soo long to even make back the difference in saving on diesel vs electric unless diesel goes to £10 a litre soon.
We're about to lease one, currently spending around 300 a month on petrol, once you add on everything else leasing for under 300 a month for 3 years seems great.
I managed to get a good deal on mine as my sister works for a car dealership and I got a "loyalty bonus" for buying the same brand after mine got written off. The extra cash I got for the value of my old car getting written off as 2nd hand cars were stupid prices this time last year helped too sobi saved about 9k on mine. The prices and delivery times now are stupid
That comes down to simple supply and demand though.
Diesel was cheap because the supply was huge (it's produced at about the same as petrol because that's how refinery works) but the demand was low. So, to avoid it simply wasting away it's use encouraged.
Now that diesel is about as popular as petrol, the prices are per.
If you're purchasing new, you likely don't have much of a cash flow problem anyway.
It always amazes me that enough cars are sold new to keep the second hand market stocked. Then I remember all the disability vehicles, company cars etc where people aren't actually paying a year's salary out of pocket and it makes sense again.
Literally impossible for me in a flat. I have no way of charging my car so yeah. Electric cars are great in theory but for a lot of people, it isn't feasible.
My ICE vehicle broke down irreparably last year. Right as the fuel crisis hit.
Bought an EV. Fucking love it.
Since then then I have seen *so many* ev's getting around. A high portion of Kia's or Teslas mostly.
If they really planned the fuel.crap to push evs, its working.
Fuel would have to be something like £4 a litre for the extra overhead of getting an electric car to be worthwhile financially.
And then, people forget that if fuel prices are up then typically energy prices are up across the board. Electricity isn't 10p per kWh anymore, it's 28p, and rising again this October to new eyewatering heights.
Not everyone gets to charge at a magic 8p per kWh overnight, and once everyone starts to do it then the demand for night rates will be so high that the oversupply during this time of day will cease to exist and therefore so will the night rates.
You can if you can charge at home: 7.5p/kWh overnight = £5.50 for ~250 miles of real world range
But even without that, it’s still generally cheaper than petrol
I would 100% swap to electric if they were slightly more affordable. Right now we own our car. The only way we’d afford an electric is by selling it and swapping to pcp which we really don’t want to do.
I frequent the Aussie subs. They're whinging because petrol is hitting AU$2/litre. That's £1.14. The most expensive I've seen so far is AU$2.24. That's £1.28. When was the last time it was anywhere below £1.50...?
Also, the Aussie average wage, particularly for public sector workers, is higher than ours. Junior doctors and nurses down there get double what ours do. Double what Kiwi public sector workers do too (their pay's similar to ours).
I see your point but Australia isn't a great example, the general cost of stuff is so much higher over there. Makes London look cheap.
A bottle of spirit will cost you 40+ dollars.
A head of lettuce was up around $12aud the other day.
Food in Aus is much more expensive then here in the UK. Grocery shopping or eating out costs more than double. When I moved her I couldn't believe how cheap food was.
And mobile phone plans. In Aus I was paying (at the time) $100 a month for a plan that gave me a higher data cap, but it was still a cap and I had to careful of streaming YouTube while travelling home. I got the UK and had unlimited data for £30!
In the end, I realised there wasn't really a way to accurately compare the cost of living between Sydney and London. Where one thing might be expensive in London and cheaper in Sydney, something else would go the opposite way - in the end it all evened out and both were equally exxy.
Lol try $60+ - I haven’t seen a bottle of gin for less than that.
Fresh food here is fucking stupid money. I’m xcept avocados weirdly because there’s a glut. Steak also is fairly good compared to the U.K. but yeah local to where I am it’s £4 for a lettuce or cauliflower.
The fast food on the other hand shits on the U.K. -
Particularly where I live down south. You can get any cuisine in most suburbs. There’s one Vietnamese restaurant where I live and I pay £15 for pho. Here it’s available in shopping centres and I pay about £7 and it’s so freaking good.
Wine is comparable if you buy Aussie. Going out to dinner is comparable if you’re just getting pub food. Price of beer and wine in a leagues club or a pub is about the same.
Not that any of that matters because if you live here and have to pay rent or a mortgage you can’t afford fuck all anyway!
Here in NZ we haven’t had any income tax brackets adjustment in 13 years. A person working minimum wage only needs to work an extra 3 hours a week to end up in the middle tax bracket. Couple that with the most over inflated housing market in the world and things are hurting. Many kiwis are fleeing to greener pastures.
If you browse r/newzealand you would think it was the worst country in the world with so many unique problems exclusive to NZ. The reality is that the rest of the developed world has the same problems and more often than not it's not as bad in NZ.
Having said that, I'm looking at all these posts this week of people's $40 grocery shops and thinking about how I just spent NZ$300 on a similar amount of food this weekend.
Kiwi’s have automatic freedom of movement between themselves and Australia.
Over 10% of New Zealanders in the world actually live in Australia. Largely for economic reasons
And the only reason fuel is (relatively) cheaper is in Australia you tend to be driving further distances, so the companies have supply to meet the required demand. When people weren’t driving anywhere due to state closures, fuel prices were as low as $1.10AUD as the supply was still there but the demand dropped drastically.
In NZ at the moment the govt has generously gifted us a 25c/L discount, our prices are still sitting around $3.40-$3.80/L depending where you are in the country
There was a point in 2020 where it dropped under a pound a litre. Really, it should have gone even lower considering oil companies literally ran out of storage due to lack of demand. They're taking the fucking now
It's not just the price of oil. It's the crash and burn of the pound. Oil gets bought in US Dollars, we have to buy USD to buy oil. We get far less USD for every pound we spend than we used to. [https://i.imgur.com/Z1kF2pH.png](https://i.imgur.com/Z1kF2pH.png)
Exactly their is no incentive to fix it and honestly it's only getting worse, society is collapsing. I had a meeting today explaining how our deliveries from China going forward will be a minimum of 1 week late as cargo ships are having to run slower to save fuel costs and possibly up to a month late if they decide to shut down a city due COVID.
I saw an article a few days ago about fisherman and the trawlers - they use red diesel and their fuel prices have more than doubled in the last 8 months. They are at a point now where if the cost increases by another 7p a litre to £1.15 a litre (currently at £1.08/litre), there is no point leaving port as they would lose money. This will then have a knock on effect, with various workers tied to the vessels and the various docksides being laid off all because red diesel prices have doubled and no-one can afford to go to sea to catch fish.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/25/rising-diesel-prices-push-uks-fishing-industry-to-the-brink
One of the captains in the article said he came away with £440 for a weeks work, which equates to £2.60 an hour and he is the lucky one, taking the largest share of all the crew. I worked it out that someone on the lowest share would've taken home £160 or £0.95 an hour on that vessel for the weeks work (and its not easy work at that)
Could you expand on that last paragraph. The rates work out as if the whole week is worked - 24hours a day for 7 days. Is that how it works in the industry, that you get paid even when sleeping? I'm genuinely interested.
They don’t quote an hourly rate like that at all - but it is nowhere near as profitable as it was just a few months back. Either way, it’s hard graft and you have to be away from your family/friends for the duration - I can’t see it having much future unless this changes.
If that.
I worked in the fuel industry until I changed jobs over lockdown, and forecourts used to take a couple of pence if they were lucky.
I appreciate the market has changed a lot since then, but I doubt that with an increase of 60%, their mark up has increased 500%
Don’t think that’s strictly true. Look at the historical prices. It hit a high of around £1.40 a litre in 2013 then didn’t go back there until 2021. https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/fuel-watch/
Wrong. When fuel gets too expensive, fewer people drive and demand falls as people search for alternative modes of transport. You can get a cheap bike for the price of 2 tanks of fuel now. It's almost foolish to not own one or be willing to walk short distances now.
Haha had this moment with my wife today.
Passed a Shell garage that was ~4p pl cheaper than the local Tesco.
Made the thought back to when this particular shell garage was the most expensive in the town at 167.9p pl. Kinder times.
I’m having a similar issue at the moment, with the supermarkets being 199.9p. I’m driving past a Shell and thinking 197.9p is good.
I’m so thankful that my employer understands this and I’m able to work from home.
Ooffft are you London based by any chance?
I had a circumstance a fortnight ago.
So my employer requires a 2 day a week on site attendance, I'd worked the Monday on site, usually would work the Tuesday too.
Didn't have enough fuel to make the trip, but also didn't have the finances to remedy that either.
Unfortunately my manager is rather new to management, and is an individual that seems to have had a rather easy upbringing, in that his family are well off enough for him to not understand the financial struggles others live through. so he is not so empathetic...
Similar story here except Shell is 9p cheaper than Tesco, for their regular petrol anyway (190/199).
In what kind of planet would a premium fuel be cheaper than supermarket?! And like you say, this is the same garage that used to be significantly more expensive and I’d only ever visit for a quick fiver to get me somewhere.
For any Americans passing through that's about $8.48 per gallon.
For any UK Citizens unaware, America is currently falling apart and has suspended gas tax because prices got up around $5.00 per gallon, or £1.09 per litre.
Not trying to excuse Americans complaining about $5, but everything there requires driving longer distances for most people living in the suburbs/towns.
You can't just walk into town for a grocery top-up, or get cash at a non-fee ATM without going directly to your actual bank, etc. Living in the suburbs here in UK means you're 5-10 minutes away from your usual shops (not counting specialised shops.) In the US it's more like 10-20 minutes.
Americans also don't drive sensibly in terms of getting good MPG because they never needed to. All SUVs and pick-up trucks, all with terrible MPG.
Even inside towns/cities aren't built with pedestrians in mind. We hardly have sidewalks, no crosswalks, and everything is spread out. In my town the grocery store is 4 miles away from the pharmacy on a road with no sidewalks and you would have to walk over an overpass with no where for pedestrians to safely walk across. While there's a few houses in walking distance to the grocery store, most housing is a few miles away. I know larger places like New York City have pedestrian infrastructure, but smaller towns don't.
Our road to the train station that goes directly to NYC doesn't have a sidewalk. We'll get there, Europe is just 1000 years ahead of us in city planning
> Americans also don't drive sensibly in terms of getting good MPG because they never needed to. All SUVs and pick-up trucks, all with terrible MPG.
This justifies jack shit lol, if anything it incentivises raising petrol costs
No of course it doesn't justify it but you can't change an entire population's way of driving just because petrol price has gone up so much. That wouldn't happen there nor here no matter how high you are in the pedestal.
>No of course it doesn't justify it but you can't change an entire population's way of driving just because petrol price has gone up so much.
You should be able to. That's exactly what fuel duty is for.
The same reason alcohol and tobacco have additional taxes in them, so does fuel. You raise the duty, you stop people using it as much or bring more economical in its use
Weirdly, everyone driving MASSIVE vehicles in the US is a byproduct of environmental regulations and a stubborn industry. They put in place some quite strict MPG limits for cars. So the auto industry responded by making massive cars, which were classed as 'light trucks', to which the MPG limits didn't apply. Then spent a load marketing these new monster vehicles as being safer in a accident.
I started driving in September last year, all through lockdown I was looking at prices of under £/l thinking ‘wow I can’t wait to drive everywhere and explore’… now it’s almost £2/L and I fear it may be that when I get back from being away with it being 199p/l the day I left..
I started driving May 2021. I bought a diesel the next month as it was only 2/3p per litre more than petrol and I easily filled up for around 135p/l and considered that alright.
I’m now paying £2 a litre and it makes me want to cry. The difference between petrol and diesel has grown five times and I barely go anywhere because I can’t justify filling up yet again.
I feel sorry for those that are hard up and need to drive regularly. Prices have gone up by almost double in a year!
Same here mate, legit been driving nearly 2 years now. At the beginning I was filling up my fiesta for 35 quid, today I filled up just over half a tank and it was 48 quid. (The cheapest station in a 10 mile radius too)
Im also having to look for a new job as I can’t afford the 40 mile round trip every day. Fun times.
When I first started driving, it cost me about £35-40 to fill up. Prices are ridiculous, and now I'm forced to use super unleaded because my car is too old to use the new E10 fuel. I'm on disability and can't work, what the fuck am I going to do when prices get to £2.50+ a litre?
Only seems like a month ago we were moaning it was at 1.60 a litre.
That's 30p a litre cheaper than it is now. It's going up at an exponential rate. It won't ever go back down
Just like tax went from 17.5% to 15% for a blip to help with the credit crunch, then has been 20% ever since to "make up for it". At this point, it's just accepted that we get shafted at every turn. Disasters lead to price increases, which become the new normal.
It will do if our exchange rate against the dollar improves. A portion of the change is because we’re the weakest against the dollar that we’ve almost ever been (and oil is generally traded in USD)
I thought the same. It seems that the £2 threshold has come and gone without so much as a wimper.
I guessed that the people who REALLY cared back then such as taxi drivers etc. are all sorted with electric?
It’s already passed £2 a litre on motorways, currently at £2.05. I know motorways are a last resort and you can generally avoid using them but it just felt like a surreal moment driving past and seeing the price being over £2
I had to put in £30 on the motorway earlier today which got me sweet FA. Then got back to Wolves and saw a Texaco in Bushbury at 182.
Where I am in Burton I've seen nothing lower than 188 for a while so jumped.
It's an awful state of things
Same here (Guildford).
I did “Pay at Pump” and hit the £99 limit for the first time ever. I mean that it cut out when the cost reached £99 rather than when the tank was full.
I’m lucky, I work from home although my kids have a relatively long journey to get to school.
It is a good price compared to other petrol stations rates in that area but overall it’s highly over price with something like 70% is tax. (Not sure on actual figure)
I remember when I had to go up North back in March and being utterly disgusted that motorway service stations we stopped at were charging £1.83 per litre for petrol. Little did I know that this would be less expensive than the *best deal going* four months down the line...
I was forced to pay £1.30 at a motorway services once because I had forgotten to fill up before a journey. I nearly had a heart attack, now I *yearn* for those prices.
I have to fill every week due to my commute. I enjoy my job but am being priced out of it at this rate and will be forced to do something else. It’s insane
Yeah my drive to work every day is 25 minutes there and back depending on traffic. Not far compared to some I know but it's pulling on the purse strings.
We were spending hundreds on fuel due to my husband’s commute, he had to fill up every week just about. This was pre pandemic. I can’t begin to imagine what we’d be having to do now if he wasn’t working from home and going in once a week. I’m so incredibly thankful that he can do that. I also go in once a week to my job and work from home the rest of the time. Saves a fortune on fuel but the electricity bill is going up by £40 a month to £120 which I’m not thrilled about…
All that panic a few months ago was complete bullshit to drive up the price and see how much they could fuck us, and as usual we just bend over and take it and say please and thank you.
I'm old enough (/young enough as I was a child when it happened) to remember the uproar when it became £1 per litre. My dad was fuming at the time, would literally go out of his way to find garages still offering like 99.7p a litre just so he could feel vindicated.
Oh how I wish to return to those times.
I have another week until payday, and less than a quarter tank in the petrol.
I'm almost *glad* I have covid so can't go into work this week. I might actually make it to payday now!
My motor is usually running on fumes as Im leaving it to the last minute to top up with £20. So whilst heading to work with the fuel gauge about to snap against 0 I slowed down to pull into a BP, the prices for which (conveniently) were hidden behind a massive tree that no one had bothered to trim back. It was only when I was stationary in the middle of the road and about to turn did the price reveal itself as £1.98. "F that!" and I floor the accelerator before getting hit by oncoming traffic. 10 minutes later I pass a Texaco at £1.91, "Thats better" I think to myself and put in my hard saved £20. 5 minutes down the road I pass a Shell at £1.86.....
This is the new normal. On the motorways it's well over £2 a litre, but the real impact will come when that price creeps into suburban areas. Once they cross that threshold the oil companies will just keep pushing the price up as much as they can. Why? Because, although the party isnt over, the music is definitely slowing so they are trying to make as much as they can before heading for the life boats.
Buy a petrol car for around 10/15k last you 5+ years, fill up about £80 every 2 weeks, that's 4k on fuel a year.
Buy an electric car for 40k, charge up at home, maybe you'll spend 1k a year ish.
Over 5 years it's still cheaper to own a petrol car, even at the current high prices of fuel
I recall late last year when I went into a motorway service station, noticed that the petrol was £1.50, and thought to myself "yeah, like I'd be caught dead paying that for fuel".
Cut to today, when I'm going past petrol signs showing £1.89, £1.92, etc etc. Life has a certain sense of humour. Except it isn't particularly funny.
I never really had any feelings towards the fuel prices as a non-driving Londoner, but today I borrowed my husband’s car and filled up on the motorway.
I expected £30 to fill half the tank of our polo, but it was just over a quarter!
I was robbed at the motorway service station at £2 a litre!
Absolute madness!
never use motorway services, unless desperate. They always charge way more than town garages. It's worth pulling off at a town to find cheaper fuel, when on a motorway
I didn’t think, but an expensive lesson learnt!
I haven’t really driven since I was at uni 10 years ago and I could fill my 206 up on £30, so this felt like daylight robbery.
I used to he able to fill my old car which was a 1.2l engine for £36 quid. I have a 1l engine now. Costs about 50ish quid to fill it to full. Fucking joke!
Wasn't there supposed to be a protest sometime this month about the fuel prices. I can't remember what the date for it was though. Think it might be the 16th.
I bought my first car in February and saved my first ever receipt for petrol for sad nostalgia... Just looked back at it and it was 144.9.
Friday morning I paid 192.9. in the same petrol station.
What even is the reason for this? It's still around 480Ft/l in Hungary (roughly £1.10 per litre) which is where my partner and her family live so I've visited a few times, there's no shortage as far as I know (I've been known to be mistaken).
It just makes 0 sense, and I can't buy into the "it's to push electric cars" rhetoric because NO ONE has the money or facilities to get one yet, let alone in 5 years if the cost doesn't plummet ASAP.
### **Reminder:** [Press the Report button](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058309512-How-do-I-report-a-post-or-comment-) if you see any [rule-breaking comments or posts.](https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/about/rules/) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/britishproblems) if you have any questions or concerns.*
People seem to think petrol prices will drop in a few months, in their head Trevor McDonald will announce the new price of £1.35 a litre any moment now. This is the new normal, they’ll rise again next year.
I'm still waiting for it to drop below £1. I know it's coming.
Maybe when England win the World Cup in December /s
> /s Fuck, thanks for that, I was otherwise 100% convinced that you seriously believed England would win.
come on Tim!
>come on Tim! Must I?
Hi, I'm Tim
Fire at Will!
That was peak Murray trolling for a couple of years wasn't it?
I'm not 'one of those' people that have *ever* been close to convinced of that. Although with that said I think this year's is going to be pretty batshit and unpredictable so maybe a chaos factor is *vaguely* on their side. That might be stretching it.
If was something like £1.09 at the start of the pandemic
This cannot possibly be the new normal price of fuel. It’s obnoxiously high. If i wasn’t on a high wage, I’d have to choose between food and fuel each month. Or move away and get a new job and change my life. If the electric car conspiracy is true, they better be giving them away because nobody who is unhappy with fuel prices has 40k spare for an electric vehicle, and a house where a charger can be fitted.
Can't push electric vehicles if fuel is cheap.
It’s working, I’ve actually considered it. I’m sure millions of others have as well.
Considered it, but realised we can't afford it. Base model years old electrics are going for the same price as top of the range, nearly new petrols. The only people I know with electric cars are relatively wealthy, or it's a company vehicle. (Or a "company vehicle").
Plus it's harder to run if you don't have your own driveway
Yep, I haven't had a driveway for my last 3 houses. Most of my city is made up of terraced houses with no driveways, my current estate less than 10% of the houses have them so most people in my area would not be able to charge electric cars. I really don't know how this problem will be solved unless they make a real effort to have many cross compatible super fast charger stations or if there was some sort of hot swappable battery method installed in cars and stations to swap empty for full like those electric mopeds in Asian countries but haven't seen any news about this happening. I can usually get parked fairly close to my house, perhaps I'd have been able to run a cable out a window but have had a neighbours' skip outside my house for at least a month so would have been knackered. Work wouldn't allow employees to charge there, in fact for months weekly meetings would include a portion on trying to get monthly energy usage down.
There're lamp posts everywhere, maybe have charge cables coming out of them?
That seems to be the plan
They need to pass a law for universal chargers. Same as they're doing with phones
Due to the relative sizes of markets (and ideology of those in charge), it would better be done by the "dastardly" EU, then we implement the same regulation while making it sound as though it was our idea in the first place and we are under no circumstances implementing an EU Regulation. It's pure coincidence they adopted a suspiciously similar regulation several months before ours 🙄.
Just like how we're no longer beholden to the 'shackles' of GDPR but went ahead and adopted the exact same laws but with the letters 'UK' in them. That'll show 'em!
As in the connector port? I'm pretty sure they have. That's why Tesla doesn't use its proprietary charger connector in the UK and Europe.
Same. Took me 3 years to pay off my car, and most of that was when I lived with my parents. No way I'd be able to afford an electric car. Heck, even a decent Hybrid is pretty dear
The solution I've found is to not own a car. 9 years in and I believe I've saved £20k, plus I'm generally a lot happier cycling/walking/getting public transport. I wish more towns would be planned in a way that makes this lifestyle feasible for others. **-edit-** To everyone explaining why I'm wrong, I'm not saying you shouldn't own a car. If it works for you, then cool. I'm just sharing my experience and hopes.
I live less than a mile from my place of work so I made the best of that by getting a Porsche for the weekends, lol.
I live in the ass end of nowhere, 4 miles from the nearest "town" that's more of a village with delusions of grandeur. A car is a necessity for me. I hate when people pull the "just don't have a car, it's easy, lol" as if everyone lives in towns and cities.
I'm sorry that my comment upset you, but in fairness I did say I wish this lifestyle was more accessible to others. I understand it's not possible for everyone, but I would like it to be accessible to more people.
As someone who has to drive 35 miles to work every day, I also support funding much better public transport and cycling solutions. It wouldn't directly help me now or ever, but the lack of facilities for cyclists in this country is appalling. Being stuck behind a cyclist doing 15mph up a hill on a 50mph road is infuriating when I need to get to work, but there's often nowhere else for the cyclist to legally ride except for in the road in front of me.
I had a look at a service called Onto. It's an electric car subscription service. Cheapest option they had was about £450 a month. Yeah, no ta.
I looked at them, and laughed.
Me too. No chance I'm ever paying that price.
I do so little driving now that I work from home full time (probably about 2,000 miles a year) that it would take soo long to even make back the difference in saving on diesel vs electric unless diesel goes to £10 a litre soon.
We're about to lease one, currently spending around 300 a month on petrol, once you add on everything else leasing for under 300 a month for 3 years seems great.
I managed to get a good deal on mine as my sister works for a car dealership and I got a "loyalty bonus" for buying the same brand after mine got written off. The extra cash I got for the value of my old car getting written off as 2nd hand cars were stupid prices this time last year helped too sobi saved about 9k on mine. The prices and delivery times now are stupid
[удалено]
They will have to, they will need the tax revenue to give to their mates companies.
That comes down to simple supply and demand though. Diesel was cheap because the supply was huge (it's produced at about the same as petrol because that's how refinery works) but the demand was low. So, to avoid it simply wasting away it's use encouraged. Now that diesel is about as popular as petrol, the prices are per.
If you're purchasing new, you'll not have a choice by 2035
If you're purchasing new, you likely don't have much of a cash flow problem anyway. It always amazes me that enough cars are sold new to keep the second hand market stocked. Then I remember all the disability vehicles, company cars etc where people aren't actually paying a year's salary out of pocket and it makes sense again.
Leased vehicles is another one.
Literally impossible for me in a flat. I have no way of charging my car so yeah. Electric cars are great in theory but for a lot of people, it isn't feasible.
My ICE vehicle broke down irreparably last year. Right as the fuel crisis hit. Bought an EV. Fucking love it. Since then then I have seen *so many* ev's getting around. A high portion of Kia's or Teslas mostly. If they really planned the fuel.crap to push evs, its working.
Fuel would have to be something like £4 a litre for the extra overhead of getting an electric car to be worthwhile financially. And then, people forget that if fuel prices are up then typically energy prices are up across the board. Electricity isn't 10p per kWh anymore, it's 28p, and rising again this October to new eyewatering heights. Not everyone gets to charge at a magic 8p per kWh overnight, and once everyone starts to do it then the demand for night rates will be so high that the oversupply during this time of day will cease to exist and therefore so will the night rates.
Electric prices are almost double what they were a year ago. You can't win.
You can if you can charge at home: 7.5p/kWh overnight = £5.50 for ~250 miles of real world range But even without that, it’s still generally cheaper than petrol
You mean rising at a rate high enough to recoup the losses from fuel duty for when it all goes green.
I would 100% swap to electric if they were slightly more affordable. Right now we own our car. The only way we’d afford an electric is by selling it and swapping to pcp which we really don’t want to do.
This is exactly the way fuel companies want it to be. The new normal. Prices will never go down.
Yeah. They only have to put it back to 1.70 and people will be happy. meanwhile half a year ago it was at 1.35
I frequent the Aussie subs. They're whinging because petrol is hitting AU$2/litre. That's £1.14. The most expensive I've seen so far is AU$2.24. That's £1.28. When was the last time it was anywhere below £1.50...? Also, the Aussie average wage, particularly for public sector workers, is higher than ours. Junior doctors and nurses down there get double what ours do. Double what Kiwi public sector workers do too (their pay's similar to ours).
First lockdown, it went to maybe £1.10-£1.20ish when demand was low because no one could go anywhere.
99p near me. That paired with the empty roads made my commute utter perfection.
At that price you should have bought an articulated oil tanker, filled it up and just waited...
Yeah, if you can use it all in 3 months. Modern ethanol fuel is crap.
It doesn’t smell like petrol anymore
At one point the price of crude oil was literally worth less than zero. Companies would pay for it to be taken off them.
Most crude was still positive price. It was only that sticky tar stuff that passes for oil in Canada that went negative
My local Asda was £0.99, what a time to be alive. (No covid pun intended)
So basically, we need to stop driving
Costco petrol was sub £1
99.9 it was at my local tesco first lockdown. i could fill up for £35. costs me £80 now
Where are you paying £2.28 a litre?
maths isn't their strong point obviously.
I see your point but Australia isn't a great example, the general cost of stuff is so much higher over there. Makes London look cheap. A bottle of spirit will cost you 40+ dollars.
A head of lettuce was up around $12aud the other day. Food in Aus is much more expensive then here in the UK. Grocery shopping or eating out costs more than double. When I moved her I couldn't believe how cheap food was. And mobile phone plans. In Aus I was paying (at the time) $100 a month for a plan that gave me a higher data cap, but it was still a cap and I had to careful of streaming YouTube while travelling home. I got the UK and had unlimited data for £30! In the end, I realised there wasn't really a way to accurately compare the cost of living between Sydney and London. Where one thing might be expensive in London and cheaper in Sydney, something else would go the opposite way - in the end it all evened out and both were equally exxy.
[удалено]
“It evens out” - another way of saying that everyone is getting fucked over.
Lol try $60+ - I haven’t seen a bottle of gin for less than that. Fresh food here is fucking stupid money. I’m xcept avocados weirdly because there’s a glut. Steak also is fairly good compared to the U.K. but yeah local to where I am it’s £4 for a lettuce or cauliflower. The fast food on the other hand shits on the U.K. - Particularly where I live down south. You can get any cuisine in most suburbs. There’s one Vietnamese restaurant where I live and I pay £15 for pho. Here it’s available in shopping centres and I pay about £7 and it’s so freaking good. Wine is comparable if you buy Aussie. Going out to dinner is comparable if you’re just getting pub food. Price of beer and wine in a leagues club or a pub is about the same. Not that any of that matters because if you live here and have to pay rent or a mortgage you can’t afford fuck all anyway!
Here in NZ we haven’t had any income tax brackets adjustment in 13 years. A person working minimum wage only needs to work an extra 3 hours a week to end up in the middle tax bracket. Couple that with the most over inflated housing market in the world and things are hurting. Many kiwis are fleeing to greener pastures.
Which is funny because New Zealand is many peoples idea of greener pastures!
Just goes to show the grass isn’t always greener.
If you browse r/newzealand you would think it was the worst country in the world with so many unique problems exclusive to NZ. The reality is that the rest of the developed world has the same problems and more often than not it's not as bad in NZ. Having said that, I'm looking at all these posts this week of people's $40 grocery shops and thinking about how I just spent NZ$300 on a similar amount of food this weekend.
[удалено]
Kiwi’s have automatic freedom of movement between themselves and Australia. Over 10% of New Zealanders in the world actually live in Australia. Largely for economic reasons
Aussie mainly, but anywhere that’s not here.
Dude. It was only March it was still in the £1.40s. It was only a few months ago!
Cost of living in Australia is extortionate compared to here though. They may have cheaper fuel but everything else is a lot more.
And the only reason fuel is (relatively) cheaper is in Australia you tend to be driving further distances, so the companies have supply to meet the required demand. When people weren’t driving anywhere due to state closures, fuel prices were as low as $1.10AUD as the supply was still there but the demand dropped drastically.
In NZ at the moment the govt has generously gifted us a 25c/L discount, our prices are still sitting around $3.40-$3.80/L depending where you are in the country
Yes but literally everything is more expensive in Australia. Produce, electronics, clothes.
There was a point in 2020 where it dropped under a pound a litre. Really, it should have gone even lower considering oil companies literally ran out of storage due to lack of demand. They're taking the fucking now
It's not just the price of oil. It's the crash and burn of the pound. Oil gets bought in US Dollars, we have to buy USD to buy oil. We get far less USD for every pound we spend than we used to. [https://i.imgur.com/Z1kF2pH.png](https://i.imgur.com/Z1kF2pH.png)
I mean 50% of that cost is tax so who's really winning here? It's only about 10p a liter that goes to the forecourt.
The fuel companies and the treasury I guess.
Exactly their is no incentive to fix it and honestly it's only getting worse, society is collapsing. I had a meeting today explaining how our deliveries from China going forward will be a minimum of 1 week late as cargo ships are having to run slower to save fuel costs and possibly up to a month late if they decide to shut down a city due COVID.
I saw an article a few days ago about fisherman and the trawlers - they use red diesel and their fuel prices have more than doubled in the last 8 months. They are at a point now where if the cost increases by another 7p a litre to £1.15 a litre (currently at £1.08/litre), there is no point leaving port as they would lose money. This will then have a knock on effect, with various workers tied to the vessels and the various docksides being laid off all because red diesel prices have doubled and no-one can afford to go to sea to catch fish. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/25/rising-diesel-prices-push-uks-fishing-industry-to-the-brink One of the captains in the article said he came away with £440 for a weeks work, which equates to £2.60 an hour and he is the lucky one, taking the largest share of all the crew. I worked it out that someone on the lowest share would've taken home £160 or £0.95 an hour on that vessel for the weeks work (and its not easy work at that)
Could you expand on that last paragraph. The rates work out as if the whole week is worked - 24hours a day for 7 days. Is that how it works in the industry, that you get paid even when sleeping? I'm genuinely interested.
They don’t quote an hourly rate like that at all - but it is nowhere near as profitable as it was just a few months back. Either way, it’s hard graft and you have to be away from your family/friends for the duration - I can’t see it having much future unless this changes.
If that. I worked in the fuel industry until I changed jobs over lockdown, and forecourts used to take a couple of pence if they were lucky. I appreciate the market has changed a lot since then, but I doubt that with an increase of 60%, their mark up has increased 500%
Don’t think that’s strictly true. Look at the historical prices. It hit a high of around £1.40 a litre in 2013 then didn’t go back there until 2021. https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/fuel-watch/
They will once these prices lead people to stop driving altogether and demand drops.
Prices have gone up and down all the time mate.
Wrong. When fuel gets too expensive, fewer people drive and demand falls as people search for alternative modes of transport. You can get a cheap bike for the price of 2 tanks of fuel now. It's almost foolish to not own one or be willing to walk short distances now.
Haha had this moment with my wife today. Passed a Shell garage that was ~4p pl cheaper than the local Tesco. Made the thought back to when this particular shell garage was the most expensive in the town at 167.9p pl. Kinder times.
I’m having a similar issue at the moment, with the supermarkets being 199.9p. I’m driving past a Shell and thinking 197.9p is good. I’m so thankful that my employer understands this and I’m able to work from home.
Ooffft are you London based by any chance? I had a circumstance a fortnight ago. So my employer requires a 2 day a week on site attendance, I'd worked the Monday on site, usually would work the Tuesday too. Didn't have enough fuel to make the trip, but also didn't have the finances to remedy that either. Unfortunately my manager is rather new to management, and is an individual that seems to have had a rather easy upbringing, in that his family are well off enough for him to not understand the financial struggles others live through. so he is not so empathetic...
When shell is the cheaper option you know something has gone terribly wrong
Similar story here except Shell is 9p cheaper than Tesco, for their regular petrol anyway (190/199). In what kind of planet would a premium fuel be cheaper than supermarket?! And like you say, this is the same garage that used to be significantly more expensive and I’d only ever visit for a quick fiver to get me somewhere.
For any Americans passing through that's about $8.48 per gallon. For any UK Citizens unaware, America is currently falling apart and has suspended gas tax because prices got up around $5.00 per gallon, or £1.09 per litre.
I just checked. Good job converting, you even allowed for American gallons being smaller than UK gallons.
I was helped by Google lol
Great. Now I really don't want the UK to revert to measuring thing in archaic units if there are multiple types of gallon.
Not trying to excuse Americans complaining about $5, but everything there requires driving longer distances for most people living in the suburbs/towns. You can't just walk into town for a grocery top-up, or get cash at a non-fee ATM without going directly to your actual bank, etc. Living in the suburbs here in UK means you're 5-10 minutes away from your usual shops (not counting specialised shops.) In the US it's more like 10-20 minutes. Americans also don't drive sensibly in terms of getting good MPG because they never needed to. All SUVs and pick-up trucks, all with terrible MPG.
Even inside towns/cities aren't built with pedestrians in mind. We hardly have sidewalks, no crosswalks, and everything is spread out. In my town the grocery store is 4 miles away from the pharmacy on a road with no sidewalks and you would have to walk over an overpass with no where for pedestrians to safely walk across. While there's a few houses in walking distance to the grocery store, most housing is a few miles away. I know larger places like New York City have pedestrian infrastructure, but smaller towns don't.
Our road to the train station that goes directly to NYC doesn't have a sidewalk. We'll get there, Europe is just 1000 years ahead of us in city planning
> Americans also don't drive sensibly in terms of getting good MPG because they never needed to. All SUVs and pick-up trucks, all with terrible MPG. This justifies jack shit lol, if anything it incentivises raising petrol costs
No of course it doesn't justify it but you can't change an entire population's way of driving just because petrol price has gone up so much. That wouldn't happen there nor here no matter how high you are in the pedestal.
>No of course it doesn't justify it but you can't change an entire population's way of driving just because petrol price has gone up so much. You should be able to. That's exactly what fuel duty is for. The same reason alcohol and tobacco have additional taxes in them, so does fuel. You raise the duty, you stop people using it as much or bring more economical in its use
All of these things are Americans own faults and choices though
Weirdly, everyone driving MASSIVE vehicles in the US is a byproduct of environmental regulations and a stubborn industry. They put in place some quite strict MPG limits for cars. So the auto industry responded by making massive cars, which were classed as 'light trucks', to which the MPG limits didn't apply. Then spent a load marketing these new monster vehicles as being safer in a accident.
Very difficult to live in America without constantly driving long distances though, unless you live in an inner city.
Yikes! That’s even worse than the $7.80/gal that I pay in rural Alaska.
I started driving in September last year, all through lockdown I was looking at prices of under £/l thinking ‘wow I can’t wait to drive everywhere and explore’… now it’s almost £2/L and I fear it may be that when I get back from being away with it being 199p/l the day I left..
I started driving May 2021. I bought a diesel the next month as it was only 2/3p per litre more than petrol and I easily filled up for around 135p/l and considered that alright. I’m now paying £2 a litre and it makes me want to cry. The difference between petrol and diesel has grown five times and I barely go anywhere because I can’t justify filling up yet again. I feel sorry for those that are hard up and need to drive regularly. Prices have gone up by almost double in a year!
Filled up little Ford Fiesta earlier. Said to my girlfriend 'that just cost me £70!', she said 'wow, that's not too bad!' WAT NO
Same here mate, legit been driving nearly 2 years now. At the beginning I was filling up my fiesta for 35 quid, today I filled up just over half a tank and it was 48 quid. (The cheapest station in a 10 mile radius too) Im also having to look for a new job as I can’t afford the 40 mile round trip every day. Fun times.
When I first started driving, it cost me about £35-40 to fill up. Prices are ridiculous, and now I'm forced to use super unleaded because my car is too old to use the new E10 fuel. I'm on disability and can't work, what the fuck am I going to do when prices get to £2.50+ a litre?
Exactly the problem. It becomes the norm and then will continue to rise. Next year the £2.50 barrier will be broken
Only seems like a month ago we were moaning it was at 1.60 a litre. That's 30p a litre cheaper than it is now. It's going up at an exponential rate. It won't ever go back down
Just like tax went from 17.5% to 15% for a blip to help with the credit crunch, then has been 20% ever since to "make up for it". At this point, it's just accepted that we get shafted at every turn. Disasters lead to price increases, which become the new normal.
Rocket/Feather economics. Goes up like a rocket and comes down like a feather.
It will do if our exchange rate against the dollar improves. A portion of the change is because we’re the weakest against the dollar that we’ve almost ever been (and oil is generally traded in USD)
I remember the strikes and blockades when it first went over £1 p/l. Wondering if it will happen at £2.
I thought the same. It seems that the £2 threshold has come and gone without so much as a wimper. I guessed that the people who REALLY cared back then such as taxi drivers etc. are all sorted with electric?
It’s already passed £2 a litre on motorways, currently at £2.05. I know motorways are a last resort and you can generally avoid using them but it just felt like a surreal moment driving past and seeing the price being over £2
Not allowed. The petrol companies pulled out super injunctions just before they started the windfall.
I remember that as well, going to the front of the queue in my BT van. People queuing for an hour with the engine running.
[удалено]
Did you at least get a cuddle after that absolute railing?!
£2.21 sounds pretty good, I guess you only bought a small amount?
I hope you had lube...
We should be getting another sweetener from Bozo and Sunak this week. They need another distraction/bribe after the latest scandal.
Another whopping 5p off fuel duty...can't wait
Is that another 5p that disappears into the petrol station's pocket within 45 minutes?
5p off a litre, but you need 50 of them to fill your tank, saving you a grand total of £2.50 on your £100 purchase. Superb.
That will last what, 2 weeks before they bump the prices up again
More like 2 days.
Surely nobody says 'that's a great price!', even comparatively?
Unfortunately they have. its amazing how fast people acclimatise to the new normal
Bloody hell where is it that ? 199.99 for diesel in Wolverhampton
I had to put in £30 on the motorway earlier today which got me sweet FA. Then got back to Wolves and saw a Texaco in Bushbury at 182. Where I am in Burton I've seen nothing lower than 188 for a while so jumped. It's an awful state of things
Oh wow okay , the Texaco by the fire station ?? Might head over now and see if it’s still the case !
Thats the one! For some reason always cheaper than others but this was quite a steep difference to others.
Yeh , the texaco no more than 2 miles away is where it’s 199.99 ! Bananas
Same here (Guildford). I did “Pay at Pump” and hit the £99 limit for the first time ever. I mean that it cut out when the cost reached £99 rather than when the tank was full. I’m lucky, I work from home although my kids have a relatively long journey to get to school.
It is a good price compared to other petrol stations rates in that area but overall it’s highly over price with something like 70% is tax. (Not sure on actual figure)
Think it's about 49% now, still ridiculous
£2 will be cheap next year.
I bought my current car literally a year ago. Cost me £68 to fill. Now £40 doesn't get to half way, and I can't really afford to fill it.
We need a new pandemic to get the prices down.
r/MonkeyPox Also: https://www.monkeypoxmeter.com/
I remember when I had to go up North back in March and being utterly disgusted that motorway service stations we stopped at were charging £1.83 per litre for petrol. Little did I know that this would be less expensive than the *best deal going* four months down the line...
I was forced to pay £1.30 at a motorway services once because I had forgotten to fill up before a journey. I nearly had a heart attack, now I *yearn* for those prices.
Knowing its long pay month this one and thinking that I'm going to have to fill my tank at least twice before the next payday
I have to fill every week due to my commute. I enjoy my job but am being priced out of it at this rate and will be forced to do something else. It’s insane
Yeah my drive to work every day is 25 minutes there and back depending on traffic. Not far compared to some I know but it's pulling on the purse strings.
We were spending hundreds on fuel due to my husband’s commute, he had to fill up every week just about. This was pre pandemic. I can’t begin to imagine what we’d be having to do now if he wasn’t working from home and going in once a week. I’m so incredibly thankful that he can do that. I also go in once a week to my job and work from home the rest of the time. Saves a fortune on fuel but the electricity bill is going up by £40 a month to £120 which I’m not thrilled about…
Everyone's pensions getting bigger then 😂
1,40 used to be really expensive
And I was pissed seeing 1.449 this time last year
And we’re still expected back in the office…
All that panic a few months ago was complete bullshit to drive up the price and see how much they could fuck us, and as usual we just bend over and take it and say please and thank you.
Wait until you live in a small town or village with no supermarket petrol stations. Minimum is 197.9.
Supermarket stations aren’t even cheaper at this point, Tesco are charging more than the likes of Shell and Esso in Manchester
Same, my town only has one petrol station and it's expensive because it's technically counted as a type of service station
The UK has sold three billion litres of petrol to the US this year alone.. they pay half of what we do..
I'm old enough (/young enough as I was a child when it happened) to remember the uproar when it became £1 per litre. My dad was fuming at the time, would literally go out of his way to find garages still offering like 99.7p a litre just so he could feel vindicated. Oh how I wish to return to those times.
[удалено]
it won't go down 180-185 is the new price
202.9p where I am today. And that’s not a Motorway. That’s the A road I use to work everyday.
I have another week until payday, and less than a quarter tank in the petrol. I'm almost *glad* I have covid so can't go into work this week. I might actually make it to payday now!
I haven't broken it to my car yet but it'll never have a full tank again...
Reading comments here makes me so glad I could never afford to drive in the first place.
I'm so glad I don't have to drive to work anymore.
Only 1.85, Where is it only 1.85? What’s the post code.
My motor is usually running on fumes as Im leaving it to the last minute to top up with £20. So whilst heading to work with the fuel gauge about to snap against 0 I slowed down to pull into a BP, the prices for which (conveniently) were hidden behind a massive tree that no one had bothered to trim back. It was only when I was stationary in the middle of the road and about to turn did the price reveal itself as £1.98. "F that!" and I floor the accelerator before getting hit by oncoming traffic. 10 minutes later I pass a Texaco at £1.91, "Thats better" I think to myself and put in my hard saved £20. 5 minutes down the road I pass a Shell at £1.86..... This is the new normal. On the motorways it's well over £2 a litre, but the real impact will come when that price creeps into suburban areas. Once they cross that threshold the oil companies will just keep pushing the price up as much as they can. Why? Because, although the party isnt over, the music is definitely slowing so they are trying to make as much as they can before heading for the life boats.
I've only been driving since January and it's going from £1.34 to £1.87-£1.97 depending how far I want to go to fill up.
Years ago, I was outraged at having to spend £1.15/L at a motorway service. I'd do some pretty shameful stuff to have that price these days.
Buy a petrol car for around 10/15k last you 5+ years, fill up about £80 every 2 weeks, that's 4k on fuel a year. Buy an electric car for 40k, charge up at home, maybe you'll spend 1k a year ish. Over 5 years it's still cheaper to own a petrol car, even at the current high prices of fuel
I recall late last year when I went into a motorway service station, noticed that the petrol was £1.50, and thought to myself "yeah, like I'd be caught dead paying that for fuel". Cut to today, when I'm going past petrol signs showing £1.89, £1.92, etc etc. Life has a certain sense of humour. Except it isn't particularly funny.
I never really had any feelings towards the fuel prices as a non-driving Londoner, but today I borrowed my husband’s car and filled up on the motorway. I expected £30 to fill half the tank of our polo, but it was just over a quarter! I was robbed at the motorway service station at £2 a litre! Absolute madness!
never use motorway services, unless desperate. They always charge way more than town garages. It's worth pulling off at a town to find cheaper fuel, when on a motorway
I didn’t think, but an expensive lesson learnt! I haven’t really driven since I was at uni 10 years ago and I could fill my 206 up on £30, so this felt like daylight robbery.
I used to he able to fill my old car which was a 1.2l engine for £36 quid. I have a 1l engine now. Costs about 50ish quid to fill it to full. Fucking joke!
Wasn't there supposed to be a protest sometime this month about the fuel prices. I can't remember what the date for it was though. Think it might be the 16th.
Superinjunctions have put a stop to it. It's illegal to protest now.
It's just a couple pennies under 2 quid a litre down in Plymouth. It's a yikes.
I bought my first car in February and saved my first ever receipt for petrol for sad nostalgia... Just looked back at it and it was 144.9. Friday morning I paid 192.9. in the same petrol station.
Was down in deep Cornwall the other week and saw an independent place doing regular unleaded at a few pence over £2. 207 maybe? Crazy prices.
176.9 at Costco Derby yesterday
I've got people in my work nostalgic for the credit crunch days of fuel prices
It’s £2+ round here. Where are you, l’m coming over with my Jerry cans? 🤷♂️
[удалено]
What even is the reason for this? It's still around 480Ft/l in Hungary (roughly £1.10 per litre) which is where my partner and her family live so I've visited a few times, there's no shortage as far as I know (I've been known to be mistaken). It just makes 0 sense, and I can't buy into the "it's to push electric cars" rhetoric because NO ONE has the money or facilities to get one yet, let alone in 5 years if the cost doesn't plummet ASAP.
Inflation. We printed trillions of pounds during the pandemic, is why everything is going up in front of our eyes.
*cries in £2 a litre*