Strong price fluctuations in the course of a day and large price differences between the various petrol stations. The Bundeskartellamt has today published its 2020 annual report on the work of its Market Transparency Unit for Fuels.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “With little effort consumers can save a lot of money at the petrol pump. In the course of a day prices in a town or region differ by more than 20 cents/litre. Motorway petrol stations are on average even 25 cents more expensive than other petrol stations. Fuel prices are at their highest in the mornings between 5 and 8 a.m. and usually at their lowest in the evening between 6 and 10 p.m. Motorists can easily find cheap refuelling possibilities by using the available mobile apps. And you can generally assume that choosing the right petrol station at the right time will remain a good option in future: cheap petrol stations mostly stayed relatively cheap, expensive ones relatively expensive.”

The Bundeskartellamt’s Market Transparency Unit for Fuels continuously monitors the trade in fuels, collects fuel prices from approx. 14,800 petrol stations across Germany and passes them on to authorised consumer information services. Motorists can call up the information from a number of information service providers, both online and via mobile apps. The new annual report mainly focuses on the observations that could be made for 2020.

Key findings:

• At one and the same petrol station, average price differences of approx. 12 cents/litre can be observed every day. A comparison of all petrol stations in one town shows that there are even average price differences of up to 22 cents/litre every day.
  
  
• Fuel prices are in most cases at their highest in the mornings (approx. 5 to 8 a.m.) and at their lowest in the evenings (approx. 6 to 10 p.m.), although there are also small price increases in the evenings. In between these periods prices often vary significantly. Towards the night time prices are significantly raised by most of the petrol stations which are still open and remain relatively high during the night.
  
  
• Whereas in 2020 and until recently there were mostly five price peaks per day, the last few weeks witnessed more changes during the typical course of a day: At the end of March and in early April there were periodically six peaks in the prices of several large petrol brands.
  
• The average price differences between towns and rural areas are relatively insignificant.
  
• Although prices at off-motorway service areas located near the motorway are often somewhat higher than those at other off-motorway petrol stations (+2-5 cents/litre), a motorist refuelling at a motorway petrol station usually has to reckon with much higher prices. These are mostly around 25 cents/litre higher than the prices at off-motorway petrol stations . However there are a few motorway petrol stations which in spite of their location do not charge considerably higher prices. These are easy to find with petrol station apps.
  

• There are only relatively minor price differences between the different German regions. Apart from a few more expensive or cheaper regions, the annual average price difference amounts to approx. 5 cents/litre.
  
  
• The difference in price between E5 and E10 increased during the course of 2020 to approx. 5 cents/litre in December 2020 and in some cases is currently even 6 cents/litre. Depending on the suitability of their vehicle, there are also significant potential savings here for motorists willing to consider changing to another petrol blend.
  
  
• Fuel prices were subject to strong fluctuations in recent months. Whereas in the spring of 2020 fuel prices had also reached a low point with a very low crude oil price due among other factors to the pandemic, at the end of February 2021 they were already back to a similarly high level as in early 2020. Apart from the rise in the crude oil price and other factors, the re-increase in VAT and introduction of CO2 pricing on 1 January 2021 also played a role in this development

The full report including further information and illustrative examples are available at the Bundeskartellamt’s website (in German only).