Name: How higher fuel prices are unsettling Europe | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-03-27T17:06:10.000Z
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Europe, land of trains, short distances, and small cars.

Adverbs of manner

Who could possibly be bothered by higher petrol and diesel prices?

Driving isn't especially cheap here to begin with, so what happens when it suddenly gets... more expensive?

The higher fuel prices of the past month are turning into a problem for this car-loving continent.

They're eating into household budgets, adding new costs to everyday products, and they're creating new political pressure.

We're going to look at Europe's exposure to rising petrol prices as compared to a much larger market, the U.S.

We'll explain the reliance on roadways here and break down some of the differences between European countries.

We'll look at why diesel vehicles are so popular here in Europe and why that's especially problematic right now.

We'll also look at why European fuel prices are in general so high, and

what countries are doing to ease the pressure on households and businesses.

Think of Europe and cars, and you may think of the famed German Autobahn.

The automobile is critical for the continent like it is in most places, and

If we zoom in on one country, car-loving Germans drive less than 16 kilometers per day;

that's far less than in the U.S., where the average is 46.

Geography would appear to play a role: distances between cities being more compact, and

public transport is on average more built out in Europe than the U.S.

Still, in Germany, roughly two-thirds of the population rely on cars for commuting to work.

Gasoline is more expensive generally, but

an increase in the oil price, uh, relative to the rest has a smaller impact.

Uh, and at the same time, there is more public transport.

Uh, that's right, distances are smaller, so the exposure, yes, it is smaller.

Another big difference between drivers in Europe and the U.S.

is that there are far more diesel vehicles on the roads here in Europe as a percentage of all drivers.

And we're not just talking about delivery, commercial, agricultural fleets, which are also overwhelmingly diesel, but private vehicles.

In Germany, nearly one out of three passenger cars is diesel, and

in some countries like Ireland and Latvia, diesel has recently outnumbered petrol cars.

Now, diesel engines are known for their fuel efficiency, their power, and, in Europe, their lower taxation by the government.

in recent years, cities in Europe have put in place or threatened tighter pollution controls that would affect diesel in particular.

But the spike in prices is still hitting Europe's large reliance on diesel quite hard.

Now, generally, we can say that driving is more expensive in Europe when calculated per kilometer.

That's taking in multiple factors, like maintenance, but

also critically fuel, which we'll get to in just a moment.

Now, using numbers by the national auto clubs in the U.S. and Germany, we made the following comparison.

For a midsize SUV, the Volkswagen Tiguan, for example, the operating costs would be 69.4 eurocents a kilometer, and

would be 43 eurocents a kilometer; again, that's according to the auto club AAA.

But here's what's interesting: despite those differences, transport costs, which do include public transportation, still eat up far more of an American's budget than a European's—17% for Americans in 2024 compared to almost 13% for Europeans.

So gas prices have jumped over the past month.

Here's a chart of four countries we selected, but

first we want to focus on the left side of the chart, where prices were.

And that's because European gas prices are, compared to the U.S., quite high to begin with.

Before the war, the average cost of unleaded petrol—Super 95 in this case—costs a euro 63 across the EU, on average.

To put it in American terms, that's about $7.15 a gallon, a gallon being about 3.75 liters.

Now, to compare, Americans were paying on average just over $3 a gallon in February, before the war started.

For the Europeans out there, that's $0.68 a liter.

Now, take a look at this breakdown of German gas prices, provided by their national auto club ADAC.

The cost of procurement and profit make up just over a third of the total costs.

An energy tax, set by law at $0.65 for petrol, a carbon tax, and a value-added tax.

And diesel looks similar, but with a lower energy tax at $0.47, and

that has generally kept diesel prices lower than petrol in Europe.

Suddenly, diesel prices have soared higher than petrol prices.

The reason being Europe's heavy reliance on imports to cover its diesel demand, and

much of that diesel comes from the Persian Gulf.

Now, of course, Europe also stopped imports from Russia after the war in Ukraine began.

Europe is competing with other supplies, with other, you know, with other customers for other supplies coming from outside its neighborhood, and

as a result, you can say that it is more exposed than other regions when it comes to diesel.

Gas prices have risen significantly, in some nations like Germany far more than in others.

And if you see those sudden dips in Italy and Spain, we'll get to those in just a moment.

Now, the average cost of gas in the EU as of March 19th was €1.84, diesel at €1.95.

Now, those numbers have big consequences.

For one, they mean that the costs of products are already rising as shippers pass along their higher costs.

It's certainly going to drive up inflation.

This very much depends on the duration of the conflict and the duration of the supply disruptions.

We have looked at various scenarios, scenarios, all of them still relatively benign.

It also means drivers will feel it at the pump, which creates its own kind of stress.

Fuel prices have created plenty of trouble in Europe's past.

The 1970s fuel embargoes were a problem for Western Europe.

West Germany introduced car-free Sundays, and

it briefly put a speed limit on the Autobahn, all in an effort to reduce oil use.

In France, a plan to increase fuel taxes in 2018 unleashed pent-up social anger over rising costs there, the result being the popular "Yellow Vest" movement, in which members blocked roadways for months between 2018 and 2019.

I asked senior correspondent Bernd Riegert what kind of pressure governments are currently facing.

Higher oil prices ripple through the entire economy.

Inflation could rise up to half a percentage point depending on how the conflict lasts.

Money spent on fuel can't be spent elsewhere, and

transportation and food production grow more expensive as diesel prices climb.

Ironically, the fact that European gas prices are normally high may benefit it right now.

If governments want to ease the pain on consumers, one thing they can do is by reducing perhaps the levies that they have in place on, let's say, gasoline or diesel.

So that can compensate to a certain extent from the higher pain caused by higher prices.

Countries including Germany have criticized oil companies, for one, saying that their price setting is opaque and accusing them of speculation.

France has even been inspecting gas stations.

All are responding to frustrations over high prices and even allegations that gas stations are using the moment to raise prices beyond a reasonable level.

That's become a common concern during energy shocks in Europe, including the one from 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.

That year, Germany's Monopoly Commission took a deeper look at price setting from gas stations.

Its findings: there were no signs of abusive pricing along the supply chain, but

it noted that the entire oil delivery chain was rather concentrated and thus couldn't rule out that pricing mechanisms weren't unproblematic from a cartel standpoint.

Now, other measures being pursued by governments right now include limiting the number of price hikes by a gas station to once a day.