This has probably been asked and answered but the search function is disabled.
I’m noticing that the price of diesel fuel is about $1.00/gal. higher than 87 octane gasoline. Throughout most of my life the price of diesel has alway been lower than gasoline. I thought, maybe mistakenly, that diesel is less refined than gasoline.
I can understand fluctuations of several cents, but $1.00/gal.? What’s going on in the market. The ships, trains and trucks all run on diesel. I understand that diesel engines are used in heavy transportation for economic reasons. This has to be a huge burden on the transportation industry.
Thanks, good info but maybe my question is why diesel is SO much higher after years of a pretty predictable price relativity. In my area, using approximations, gasoline is at $3.3?/gal., #2 heating oil is at $3.6?/gal. and diesel is at $4.3?/gal.
#2 heating oil always used to be cheaper than gasoline and the fact that it is $.20 more a gallon doesn’t bewilder me. It’s the +$1.00/gal. for diesel that astounds me.
To make an analogy (that may be totally inaccurate) it’s as if the price of orange juice went up 50% and the price of oranges went up 150%.
This, from CMC’s link, has definitely lead to an increase in diesel prices. We use diesel ambulances, and the price went up quite a bit when stations switched to the low-sulfur diesel.
Not sure why, but I can tell you that diesel is not universally higher. I just got back from Germany where diesel was $1.35/liter as opposed to $1.43/liter for gasoline. There may be some differential in taxes and I don’t know of they have to use the low sulphur variety there.
I think you’ll find it’s more for low-end torque, durability, and other technical reasons more than a price-based decision. I think diesel would have to be hugely more expensive than petrol before heavy industry started thinking of changing over.
FWIW, the diesel-more-expensive-but-never-used-to-be pattern holds true for Australia as well.
Let us not forget,
Any time a change is made to a product it is an opportunity to raise the price $$$!
Back when unleaded gasoline came out the price jumped way up and there was less going into it. Oh the petro people will cry that it is more expensive to make and all, but its just another opportunity IMHO.
As for the diesel fuel price, If the price per gallon were to drop, Why so would natural gas. How can anyone expect a waste product price to be lowered??
When we bought our Volkswagen Golf TDI in August of 2003, I recall diesel near our house being about $1.49 while 87 octane gas was about $169. We pointed and laughed at everyone because not only were we kicking everyone’s ass in terms of miles-per-gallon, but we also had cheaper fuel.
But that was a long time ago, and we’re now paying about $4.20/gallon.
Where I really took notice of this was in New York State outside of New York City.
Your point is well taken but at the rate the major transportation providers use fuel it comes down to money. If they can save a few cents by using hamsters in a treadmill they will opt for it. That’s why diesel, with its maintenance issues and pollution has been the power of choice.
I haven’t done the arithmetic but your situation has to hurt. There was just some article about a BMW diesel getting better mileage than a Prius but so what, it is like saying that you can get drunker on Dom Perignon than beer.
It certainly isn’t pleasant to be paying over $4/gallon to fuel up, but it is much less problematic than it sounds when compared to the normal gas-sipping vehicle. I just went to losangelesgasprices.com. According to them, the cheapest mid-grade (89 octane) in the region is $3.49, and the cheapest diesel is $3.97. We can generally squeeze about 43 miles to the gallon out of a tank of diesel, so at $3.97, I figure we’re getting about 10.83 miles per dollar spent on fuel. If a decently fuel-efficient gasser is getting 30mpg and paying $3.49, they’re only getting 8.6 miles for every dollar. (God help me – it’s late, and I’m tired, so my apologies if I’ve screwed up that math.)
Assuming I’m calculating that correctly, we still have quite the advantage over most gasoline engines despite the higher price.
Around here the gas goes up then the diesel. The gas goes down and then the diesel. There is always a lag in the diesel prices. Heating oil use does make the diesel prices change too. My brother stopped gloating his diesel was cheaper, when he figured out the gas will be cheaper than diesel in the following month.
There are lots of us oil burners around here that use S(traight) V(egetable)** O**(il). Not me though, can’t burn it, have to use bio from WVO
It has been noted lately that the price of vegetable oil has suddenly doubled and costs approximately the same as diesel from the pump.
Previously it was half the price or less.
Diesel used to have reduced fuel tax, making it considerably cheaper to use. The philosophy was, until I bought my first diesel, that it was less of a pollutant.
Almost in concert with my purchase, the philosophy reversed and the fuel tax was increased to the same level as that on petrol.
Not long after they increased the annual car tax on diesels compared to petrol engined cars.
That changed again recently and I now pay slightly more than half the tax on this car than the previous (petrol) one. Which is nice, I suppose, except that this car (HDi) manages around 35MPG where the last diesel achieved up to 70MPG and averaged around 50.
I’ve always hear this as the explanation for slightly higher diesel prices. Basically diesel contains more energy than gasoline, so even at a higher price it’s still better value for money in terms of pence per mile. Same reason drunks prefer gin to beer.
Others have answered about some of the reasons for diesel being higher than gasoline. I just wanted to say that there are different grades of diesel out there. Railroad diesel is heavier than truck diesel, and marine diesel (at least for the big boys ) is heavier yet