An analysis of the current prices for diesel, petrol, and electric cars shows that UK drivers are among the hardest-hit in Europe and the US when it comes to fuel costs.
While many people think electric cars are the cheapest way to get around, data from Xcite Car Leasing shows the UK has the second highest electricity prices among surveyed countries, just behind Italy.
Diesel prices in the UK are the fourth highest, trailing Switzerland, Finland, and Norway. Petrol prices in the UK are the 11th highest. Danish drivers pay the most for petrol, but drivers in the Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Switzerland, Italy, France, Finland, Germany, and Portugal all pay more for petrol than those in the UK.
The US and Turkey are the cheapest countries for fuel, with Turkey having the lowest electricity prices and the US having the lowest prices for petrol and diesel.
UK drivers are burdened with high diesel prices, partly due to high profit margins at supermarkets, but the high cost of electricity is even more surprising. This is partly because the wholesale price of electricity in the UK is tied to the cost of running gas-fired power stations. With the increase in renewable energy production, there have been calls to separate electricity prices from gas, but lower bills for consumers would mean less tax revenue for the government.
According to Xcite, the UK ranks third overall for the highest fuel costs, behind Italy and Switzerland. However, there is good news regarding electric charge points: the UK ranks sixth for chargers per square mile, behind Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
