Fuel costs should now be as low as 167p per litre, the RAC has claimed, when the cost of wholesale fuel is the lowest it has been since May.
Yet the UK’s four biggest supermarkets, whose prices dictate the wider market, have told Autocar that they’re already offering the best prices they can.
Currently, the average price of fuel on British forecourts sits at 182.69p per litre for petrol and 192.38p per litre for diesel, despite the cost of wholesale price falling by 20p to 131.75p in the past eight weeks.
The last time wholesale costs were at this level three months ago, the UK average pump price was just 167p.
Prices on forecourts have been steadily dropping (9p for unleaded and 7p for diesel in July), but the RAC is now calling for prices to fall even further to reflect these growing wholesale savings.
“July has been an unnecessarily tough month for drivers, due to the big four supermarkets’ unwillingness to cut their prices to a more a reasonable level, reflecting the consistent and significant reductions in the wholesale cost of petrol and diesel,” RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said.
“What ought to have happened is that the biggest retailers cut their prices more significantly on a daily basis.”
However, the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents the big four major supermarkets – Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco – said that retailers can’t yet drop their fuel prices any lower.
Andrew Opie, the BRC’s director of food and sustainability, said: “Retailers understand the cost pressures facing motorists and will do everything they can to offer the best value for money across petrol and diesel forecourts, passing on cost reductions as they feed through the supply chain.”
Tesco has backed this, adding that it has already lowered prices as much as it can, with these prices helping families amid “tough rising fuel bills”. However, it was unable to answer why prices aren’t where the RAC has said they should be.