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Many are currently grieving when looking at energy costs.
Anyone who has to drive long distances to work or enjoys cruising through the area will feel that the most expensive tank summer in recent years has begun.
The price of crude oil has reached more than 60 euros per barrel (159 liters) again; The fuel price at the gas station jumped to an average of over 1.50 euros in June - even for E10. And is now on the way to 1.60 euros. This corresponds almost to the level of the expensive car summers around ten years ago - from 2011 to 2014. Of course, that also means that fuel prices have not increased for many years (in contrast to wages and pensions). Not in comparison to the years 2011 to 2014, but in comparison to last year. The sharp rise in crude oil prices, the new CO2 tax and the renewed increase in VAT have all contributed to the price increase in the first half of 2021.
In addition, there are the games of the mineral oil companies with the lethargic part of the clientele, i.e. with us private drivers.
If the price of crude oil falls, gasoline prices take a long time to fall.
If the price of crude oil rises, the price of gasoline rises all the more.
Ten years after its introduction, we customers have still not gone through the conversion to E10 gasoline, we still fill up on the motorway and pay with every liter on top.
The gas stations, on the other hand, change the price a dozen times a day.
Current prices only have a limited bearing on costs
As expected, the oil industry is once again taking with it what can be done before the petrol age finally comes to an end.
How you can defend yourself against this with the tips from Finanztip, see below.
The first thing you should learn: The current prices have only limited relevance to the costs.
Just a few figures to illustrate: In spring 2020 the price of crude oil was 15 cents per liter, one eighth of the price of petrol at the time.
15 months later, the price of crude oil is around 40 cents, about a quarter of the price of gasoline.
At the same time, according to the Cartel Office, fuel prices in a city fluctuate by up to 22 cents per liter in one day.
Sure, the average fuel price had to rise significantly with the development of crude oil prices - according to ADAC from 1.17 euros on average for E10 in March 2020 to 1.51 euros currently for fuel.
But do the 1.51 euros quoted by the ADAC reflect the actual price level?
Is the E10 fuel price really the standard price for gasoline at German petrol pumps?
Rather not.
Because according to the latest figures from the Cartel Office, only 16 percent of the petrol in the tank is E10, although the type is always a few cents cheaper than the classic super.
The numbers have hardly increased since the introduction of E10 in 2011 if you look at the official statistics.
And that although, according to the DAT Schwacke list, 95 percent of gasoline-powered vehicles, including the vast majority of old cars, can handle E10;
All new cars since 2012 anyway.
In other words: the classic fueling nation is filling the pockets of the corporations with classic super.
How much the providers play ping-pong with us is also shown by the different price development of diesel and E10.
Sometimes the average price difference is 19 cents, sometimes 11 cents.
And that only in the past two years.
The CO2 tax
Now many of you will say: But it is also the new CO2 tax that has recently made fuel more expensive.
Indeed.
But so far, the CO2 levy is still a dwarf alongside the mineral oil tax and VAT, and in view of the fluctuations in crude oil, a predictable factor.
For comparison: the mineral oil tax for the Super variety is 65 cents per liter;
the CO2 price at just six cents.
In addition: The CO2 tax for climate protection is consensus among the democratic parties.
We are currently changing the climate.
We have to reduce our CO2 emissions significantly quickly.
That is what the Greens have always wanted and that has been clear to current Chancellor Angela Merkel for more than 25 years - at that time, as Environment Minister, she hosted the first UN climate summit in Berlin.
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So on the one hand climate protection, on the other hand fair prices.
Even the finance minister cannot explain why our government is proceeding the same way as it currently does when it comes to taxing fuel.
On the one hand, the new CO2 tax is intended to encourage us to drive more economically.
If any.
The levy is now about six or seven cents per liter, and soon it will double that amount.
With Annalena Baerbock from the Greens already in 2023, with the CDU parliamentary group leader Ralf Brinkhaus from 2025.
At the same time, however, the mineral oil tax for diesel drivers is still 18 cents per liter below the tax for gasoline vehicles.
If the goal of these taxes and charges is lower fuel consumption, doesn't that apply to diesel drivers?
Wouldn't a lot be gained by aligning this point?
Perhaps the strategists in the Ministry of Finance also assume that there are far fewer penny pinchers among motorists in this country than screamers.
Despite 20 million drivers: inside with a tank app.
And although the price differences between Super Normal and Super E10 have risen from two cents in the past to six cents now.
What can you do?
First of all for a short time for the drivers: inside among you:
Petrol
: fill up with the E10.
With an average of seven liters of fuel consumption per 100 kilometers and an average of 13,000 kilometers per year per car, 910 liters of fuel save around 55 euros per six cents per year.
This is not good for the environment, but it is good for your wallet.
Petrol and diesel
: use the tank app.
This saves more than ten cents per liter when used correctly.
The Cartel Office has determined that the average daytime difference in fuel prices at a petrol station is twelve cents.
Correct use
: Simply enter your everyday evening routes into the app.
And the app will then tell you the particularly inexpensive petrol stations along the way.
Big detours are not worth it.
14,800 petrol stations have to report their prices to the cartel office.
You can find this data in your app.
Savings: on average between 50 and 100 euros per year.
During the vacation time
: Avoid motorway
filling stations
!
Even on the way to your holiday destination.
The difference between the last inexpensive city gas station and the first motorway gas station is often 30 cents per liter or 15 euros per tank of fuel.
There is an ice cream or a coffee for all passengers: inside at the break.
Truck stops:
Use the truck stops off the autobahn for these stops, which are now available at every second exit in Germany, and you can save a lot of fuel in this way.
The Bundeskartellamt says you can save 25 cents per liter this way.
Drive in a fuel-efficient way
.
As a child, I was able to learn how to do this in the traffic advice program »The 7th Sense«.
The video shows how commuters can save 200 euros a year on fuel.
Every liter less actually benefits the climate and the environment.
And for next year at the latest:
Think about the question of whether the specific way to go on vacation can not be mastered without a car.
The question will arise more frequently in the future.
Even our CSU Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer assumes in an astonishing »taz« interview at the beginning of July that we will only have 30 to 35 million cars on German roads by 2030 instead of the current 48 million.
Think about whether your future car could be an electric car after all.
If you have to travel around town a lot, maybe a hybrid.
You do not need to worry about 55 euros less fuel costs with E10.
Also keep in mind: you won't pay any road tax for an electric car until 2030.
And there are generous grants when buying them.
With e-cars you will have to learn quickly how to get your car electricity cheaply. The price differences are even more gigantic at this point than with gasoline. It is cheaper to refuel at home, with household electricity or car electricity. The cheapest electricity, however, is that from your own solar roof - if you have one.
