Fuel tax cut saves you 13 cents until noon
The temporary fuel tax cut started on Thursday, 1 October, and pump prices fell overnight. The energy tax on petrol and diesel drops by 14.04 cents per litre, which works out at about 16.7 cents once VAT is included. By 11:00 on the first day, Super E10 cost on average 12.7 cents less than at the same time a day earlier, and diesel 13.3 cents less, according to an analysis of the prices reported by around 14,500 filling stations. The ADAC motoring club measured an average of 2.062 euros for E10 at 8:00, which was 14.5 cents lower than on Wednesday.
The saving does not last all day. Filling stations may raise prices only once a day, at 12 noon, and they did so again on the first day of the cut. The ADAC says stations often add more than 20 cents per litre at midday. In Dresden, the average E10 price went from 2.01 euros at 11:20 to 2.24 euros at 12:30.
The cut applies to every driver and business and runs until 31 December 2026. It is applied in the supply chain and is not paid back to you directly, and stations are not legally required to pass on the full amount. Whether the last few cents reach the pump will only be clear in the coming days. The coalition also wants to introduce a fuel price cap in January 2027, but how it will work has not yet been decided.
What you can do: fill up before 12 noon, when prices are usually at their lowest. Use a fuel price app that shows official station prices, and compare prices at the same time of day rather than with the evening before, because the noon rise distorts the comparison.