Fact #645: October 18, 2010
Price of Diesel Fuel versus Gasoline in Europe
A comparison between the average annual price of a gallon of gasoline and a gallon of highway diesel fuel in several European countries shows that a large change took place in 2008. In most of the selected countries, the price of gasoline was 30 to 95 cents higher than that of diesel from 2001 to 2007. In 2008, the price difference between the two fuels sharply declined for every country shown. Even the United Kingdom, which had higher diesel prices than gasoline since 2001, shows the same trend. Spain is the only country shown that reversed which fuel was priced higher; in 2007 gasoline was 40 cents more than diesel, but in 2008 gasoline was 12 cents less than diesel. This narrowing of fuel prices is likely a contributing factor to the decline of diesel sales share (See Fact of the Week #644).
Supporting Information
| France | Germany | Italy | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Gasoline | Diesel | Difference | Gasoline | Diesel | Difference | Gasoline | Diesel | Difference |
| 2001 | 3.51 | 2.71 | 0.80 | 3.40 | 2.79 | 0.61 | 3.57 | 2.95 | 0.62 |
| 2002 | 3.62 | 2.75 | 0.87 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 0.67 | 3.74 | 3.05 | 0.69 |
| 2003 | 4.35 | 3.39 | 0.96 | 4.59 | 3.79 | 0.80 | 4.53 | 3.75 | 0.78 |
| 2004 | 4.99 | 4.16 | 0.83 | 5.24 | 4.41 | 0.83 | 5.29 | 4.41 | 0.88 |
| 2005 | 5.46 | 4.81 | 0.65 | 5.66 | 5.01 | 0.65 | 5.74 | 5.21 | 0.53 |
| 2006 | 5.88 | 5.13 | 0.75 | 6.03 | 5.30 | 0.73 | 6.10 | 5.53 | 0.57 |
| 2007 | 6.60 | 5.66 | 0.94 | 6.88 | 6.06 | 0.82 | 6.73 | 6.03 | 0.70 |
| 2008 | 7.51 | 7.03 | 0.48 | 7.75 | 7.37 | 0.38 | 7.63 | 7.43 | 0.20 |
| Spain | United Kingdom | ||||||||
| Year | Gasoline | Diesel | Difference | Gasoline | Diesel | Difference | |||
| 2001 | 2.73 | 2.35 | 0.38 | 4.13 | 4.25 | -0.12 | |||
| 2002 | 2.90 | 2.46 | 0.44 | 4.16 | 4.29 | -0.13 | |||
| 2003 | 3.49 | 2.97 | 0.52 | 4.70 | 4.82 | -0.12 | |||
| 2004 | 4.09 | 3.55 | 0.54 | 5.56 | 5.68 | -0.12 | |||
| 2005 | 4.49 | 4.20 | 0.29 | 5.97 | 6.25 | -0.28 | |||
| 2006 | 4.84 | 4.50 | 0.34 | 6.36 | 6.63 | -0.27 | |||
| 2007 | 5.36 | 4.96 | 0.40 | 7.15 | 7.34 | -0.19 | |||
| 2008 | 6.13 | 6.25 | -0.12 | 7.42 | 8.14 | -0.72 | |||
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Source: Energy Information Administration, "Retail Motor Gasoline Prices in Selected Countries, 1990-2009" and "Automotive Diesel Prices for Non-Commercial (Household) Use, Selected Countries, Recent Years." |
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