• Petrol this week has dropped to its lowest UK average price since July 2021

By ROB HULL

Updated: 10:37 BST, 30 May 2025

Drivers are being urged to brim their cars with fuel in the coming days after the price of petrol dropped to its lowest level since July 2021 – as experts warn it’s unlikely to fall any further.

The AA said the average price of unleaded across the UK on Thursday dipped to 132.3p a litre, falling over 3p in the last month from around 135.5p in early April.

However, it said this ‘may be as far as it falls’ as it suggested motorists should head to forecourts on Friday or over the weekend to benefit from cheap fuel prices.

It said a gradual decline in petrol prices seen over recent weeks has now ‘reduced to a trickle’.

This was despite a $15-a-barrel slump in the value of oil in April, which had led to speculation of a 6p cut in the average pump price.

Downward movement in the average price of diesel has also all but ground to a halt, averaging 138.5p a litre on Thursday and returning to where it was in the second week of October.

Drivers are being urged to brim their cars with fuel in the coming days after the price of petrol dropped to its lowest level since July 2021 - as experts warn it's unlikely to fall any further

Drivers are being urged to brim their cars with fuel in the coming days after the price of petrol dropped to its lowest level since July 2021 – as experts warn it’s unlikely to fall any further

The average price of unleaded across the UK on Thursday dipped to 132.3p a litre. Petrol has fallen by over 3p in the last month from around 135.5p in early April

The average price of unleaded across the UK on Thursday dipped to 132.3p a litre. Petrol has fallen by over 3p in the last month from around 135.5p in early April

Despite petrol dropping to a near four-year low this week, the AA says it is important to remember that pump prices are still subject to the 5p-a-litre fuel duty cut, first established in March 2022.

With VAT included, it means both petrol and diesel prices are 6p-a-litre down on where they should be. 

Without it, current petrol pump prices would average 138.3p a litre, a level in line with October 2021 and only around 4p short of the 142.5p pre-pandemic record of April 2012.

‘The importance of the continuing 5p cut cannot be underestimated,’ Luke Bosdet, the AA’s spokesman on road fuel prices said. 

‘Without the duty cut, petrol would still be uncomfortably close to the record level seen before the pandemic and Ukraine war economic shock. 

‘The Chancellor needs to consider this in upcoming tax deliberations.’

Motorists are urged to fill up sooner rather than later as the AA said the gradual decline in petrol prices seen over recent weeks has now 'reduced to a trickle'

Motorists are urged to fill up sooner rather than later as the AA said the gradual decline in petrol prices seen over recent weeks has now ‘reduced to a trickle’ 

Bosdet said there has been plenty of movement in fuel pricing in the last six weeks.

‘Failure to see a much bigger fall in the pump price of petrol comes largely from the rollercoaster movement of wholesale prices: tumbling around 7p a litre in early April, rebounding more than 2p by the end of that month, dropping 3p going into May and then bouncing back 3p by mid-May,’ he explained.

‘Since then, there has been a 2p fall that returns wholesale close to where it was in early March.

‘Despite oil still being around $10-a-barrel lower than in early April, the impact on pump prices remains disappointing and frustrating for UK motorists.’

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Here’s why you should fill up your car with fuel THIS WEEKEND



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