How often did you drive your car in 2020? With months of lockdown and year-long travel restrictions in place, you likely used your vehicle considerably less in 2020 than usual. Official statistics this week reveal that this caused petrol sales to drop by an average of 20 per cent.
Compared to 2019, the sale of unleaded dropped by 20.9 per cent in 2020, and diesel by 15.9 per cent.
Interestingly, the drop was particularly noticeable for supermarket retailers, despite them being one of the few retailers permitted to remain open across all through national lockdowns.
Statistics show that supermarkets suffered a 22.3 per cent drop in fuel sales last year, making them the worst-hit fuel retailer. It is thought that restricted travel, increased supermarket delivery options and unwillingness to travel to larger stores could be blamed for the fall.
In contrast, localised fuel retailers – often smaller and more easily accessible for drivers unwilling to travel to larger supermarkets – will have seen higher fuel sales than larger supermarket retailers. However, it is likely that a reduction in traffic will still have impacted their sales.
AA fuel spokesman, Luke Bodset, commented on the supermarket decline in petrol sales, saying: ‘The greater impact of lockdown-restricted travel on supermarket petrol sales compared to trade in general is a little surprising given that superstores have remained open throughout the pandemic.’
However, he also acknowledged that a decline was inevitable: ‘Fuel sales were always going to take a huge hit from car travel falling as low as 22 per cent (recorded in April 2020, when the toughest travel restrictions were in place) of pre-pandemic levels.’
He concluded positively, suggesting that petrol sales had not been impacted as much as had been expected:
‘However, supermarkets continuing to trade suggested better fuel sales resilience, although the boom in grocery deliveries will also have meant fewer visits to the stores’ forecourts.’
Now that restrictions are gradually lifting, an increase in travel and therefore fuel sales is being anticipated.
Chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), Brian Madderson, confirmed this expectation, stating that although ‘the drop in petrol and diesel volumes can be directly attributed to the unprecedented Covid-19 travel restrictions placed upon motorists’, he is expecting a ‘strong bounce-back’ as the country beings to open up once more.
He also suggested that despite growing numbers of electric vehicles being registered across the country, there are still over 40 million drivers who will still rely on petrol and diesel to get them from A to B:
‘While there has been growing demand for electric vehicles, their market share remains very modest.
‘With over 40 million combustion engines (ICE) vehicles still driving in the UK economy, we expect fuel volumes to experience a strong bounce-back once restrictions have been lifted for good.’
[Image Source: Shutterstock, March 2021]
What will the fall in petrol sales mean for petrol prices?
During the first part of the pandemic, the price of petrol nosedived to below £1-a-litre – a low that was last recorded in 2016.
Again, much like the fall in sales, the fall in price was caused by a lack of demand, leading to oversupply and a lack of storage.
Since then, however, petrol prices have been steadily rising. It is anticipated that they will continue to do so as more and more restrictions are lifted, allowing motorists to travel further and more often again.
The RAC has suggested that by the time the current lockdown ends entirely in June of this year, we could see petrol prices hiked up to record highs, potentially reaching 143p-a-litre for petrol and 148p-a-litre for diesel.
The price of oil may also nudge prices upwards, with some analysts predicting a barrel of oil could be priced at $80, potentially even reaching $100 by 2022.
Currently, fuel prices stand at around 126p-a litre, meaning that drivers are now forking out an extra £6.33 to fill a tank than they were in the autumn of 2020.
Luke Bodset has suggested that while lifted restrictions will be a positive step forward for the economy and fuel retailers alike, it is motorists who will feel the effects of increased fuel prices:
‘As they struggle to get their working lives and family finances back on an even keel after Covid, there is going to be a real sense of being under assault for needing to drive a car.’
Did you feel the benefit of needing less fuel for travel in 2020? Are you worried that petrol prices will rise further as restrictions are lifted?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Due to self isolation I used my car less than 20% than usual during the last year.
Blatant attempt by oil companies to recoup their losses will not encourage me to increase my use even when I feel it is safe to do so.
One thing and one thing alone is driving up fuel prices, GREED.
The price of crude has been falling recently, the £ is quite strong compared to the $, and fuel duty didn’t increase in the budget.
This is simply the PRA and the forecourts taking the p*ss out of the beleaguered motorist.
Got it in one Tony !! They are all crooks !!
I filled up my car with unleaded in Nov 2020 and it was £1.11p per litre. Today, Apr 2021, it’s now £1.25p per litre…..WTF!!
Did you fill up at an independent garage? As Tesco where I live in Long Eaton Notts is 116.9p for unleaded, and diesel is I think 120.9p or 121.9p and Asda unleaded is 117.7p
No, I use branded fuel, Shell or Texaco. I don’t trust supermarket fuels.
Why? Its the same stuff!!!
Yes and no. Branded petrol has additional chemicals in the mixture, where as supermarket fuel is raw.
At the start of the latest lockdown my local Tesco was charging £1.07.9, now it’s £1.25.9 and rising, costing me an extra £6.30 every time I fill up my car. Who gets this extra money? Is it the forecourt operators, the oil companies, the oil producing countries? Who are the greed merchants? Given that it affects us all the total sums must be enormous – whose pockets is it swelling?
While on the subject of fuel price why do they all price fuel in tenths of a penny? It seems ridiculous since the smallest legal tender is 1p. Maybe the next rise should be limited to 0.1p so ending this anachronistic practice.
It is curious that you apparently find it irritating that fuel is not usually charged at an integer number of pence per litre especially as you and most other motorists are unlikely to buy only one litre at a time. If it bothers you so much then buy fuel in amounts such as 10, 20, 30 or 40 litres per visit to a fuel station or, better still, buy it by cost (arranged to be a whole number of pounds) rather than by a pre-decided volume. Perhaps you would like the price per litre to be rounded up to a whole number of pence rather than typically ending in 0.7p or 0.9p.
It might as well be rounded up, as the majority of fuel prices display 123.9p
How much fuel does 0.1p buy anyway? It is just the 99p psychology of being less that a whole number of pounds.
I have been watching the steady rise of petrol ⛽ prices, which, as always, does not reflect the rise in the price of oil. The price of a barrel can drop, by say 20%, and as always the price of fuel may fall by 5% to 7%. I have no doubt that as our consumption of fuel falls due to less fossil fuelled vehicles being on the road, the price of the fuel will rise to make up for the losses the oil industry will incur.
The prices are higher as OPEC (cartel of oil producing Arab countries) decided to cut production to fix the prices as higher. If anyone looks into this, ironically, this is a reaction to the exploitation of Arab countries in which Britain was a major player. Unfortunately, more electric cars will not reduced prices as Arabs will want to retain profits. It is not UK forecourts or refineries which are profiteering.
I have recently stripped fuel systems on some motorcycles and the damage from ethanol petrol is obvious. Using this cheaper fuel will be more expensive in the long run. That is before factoring in the fact that ethanol needs a richer mixture which will automatically be adjusted via the O2 sensors in vehicles of less than about 30 years old. Greater fuel use from needing a richer mixture means more road transport to bulk move the fuel to fuel stations. This is a lose-lose situation for motorists which only benefits on-paper manipulated figures by corrupt politicians who do so for their own short term personal gains. There is a good reason environmental groups didn’t want bio-ethanol and similarly, Shell V-Power in Germany contains a maximum 0.7% ethanol. I have seen that fuel system related faults on both petrol and diesel cars appears to be exclusively attributable to supermarket fuel. That said though, even the branded non-premium fuel leaves a fair bit to be desired (it is BS EN 228 so is E5) but I don’t see a return to owners carrying out their own repairs to change their wrongful attitude that cheaper is better. Like Covid, greed is pandemic.
Fantastic goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you are just extremely fantastic. I really like what you have acquired here, really like what you are stating and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still take care of to keep it sensible. I can’t wait to read far more from you. This is really a tremendous site.
<a hrefs=”https://darkweblinkssites.com/”> Harold Burton </a>
This post looks like two things, rubbish and spam, a pity there doesn’t seem to be a report button for this sort of thing.