Motorists have been warned the cost of filling up their tanks has risen once again and that the price for some has now gone over the £80 mark. Petrol and diesel has gone up for the fourth straight month, meaning unleaded is now 5p a litre more expensive and diesel is 6p up on the start of October 2024.
And it means filling a family-sized diesel car is now £80.15, which is £3 more than it was in October – £80.15 a tank, compared to £76.70 when a litre was 139.5p.
If your car is petrol, the cost is £2 more a tank. Petrol went up 2p a litre in January to an average of 139p, compared to 136.9p at start of 2025.
Motoring experts the RAC say the rise is thanks to a mid-month spike in the oil price, which saw the cost of a barrel shoot up above $80 for several days.
This combined with a slight weakening of the pound which made wholesale fuel more expensive to buy, had an effect on prices on the UK’s forecourts.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “It’s not been a good start to 2025 for drivers at the pumps with prices going up for the fourth month in a row. Sadly, filling up is now nearly £3 more expensive than it was at the start of October.”
But Williams said there are signs that prices could drop again. He added: “We hope this trend won’t continue and that prices drop back down again. Much, of course, depends on global oil supply and demand.
“While the price of oil can be notoriously volatile, there’s reason to think forecourt fuel prices may get cheaper in the coming months as some analysts are predicting an average oil price nearer to $70 this year.”
RAC Fuel Watch data also showed that supermarkets are still the cheapest places to buy your fuel. The average price of a litre of unleaded bought at one of the big four supermarkets – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, and Morrisons – rose by 1.6p a litre to 134p and diesel by almost 2p to 141.6p. Supermarket-bought petrol is currently 3.5p cheaper than the UK average, while diesel is 4p lower.