RAC Data Shows Diesel Drivers Nearing a Record Price as Tanks Cost £107

• Diesel now averages 195.32p a litre, just under 4p short of the all-time record of 199.09p set in June 2022, RAC data shows.
• A full 55-litre tank of diesel costs £107.43, up £29 (37 percent) from the end of February, and a tank of petrol now costs £94.61, up £21.55.
• Petrol has topped 172p a litre for the first time in more than three years, having risen more than 10p so far this month alone.

UK diesel prices are on course to break their all-time record within days, according to the RAC, after a month of near-continuous rises driven by the conflict in the Middle East. The RAC’s head of policy, Simon Williams, said average diesel prices have reached 195.32p a litre, just under 4p short of the 199.09p record set on 25 June 2022, and are rising fast enough that a new record looks “increasingly likely” within the next week. Petrol has already passed a level not matched in more than three years, last reached in August 2022, leaving both fuels at their most expensive point in that time.

The scale of the increase is the clearest part of the RAC’s own figures. Diesel has risen 11.72p a litre so far in September, with 5p of that added in the past week alone. Petrol is up more than 10p this month, including 3.6p in the last week, and now averages 172.02p a litre, its highest level in more than three years, a mark last set on 17 August 2022. Both fuels have been climbing from late February onwards, when oil prices began rising on the back of the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran, pushing a barrel of crude consistently above $100 for the first time in years.

What a month of rises has actually cost drivers

Converted into what drivers are paying at the pump, the RAC’s figures show a full 55-litre tank of unleaded petrol now costs £94.61, up £21.55, or 30 percent, from the end of February. A full tank of diesel costs £107.43, up £29, or 37 percent, over the same period. For a household that fills up twice a month, that works out to roughly £43 extra for petrol and £58 extra for diesel compared with what the same two fill-ups would have cost before the conflict began, according to the RAC’s calculations.

Those figures build on a run of price rises the RAC has been tracking closely from early September onwards. On 4 September, the organisation warned that pump prices were set to rise again as wholesale costs climbed. By 9 September, diesel had reached what the RAC described as a new “Iran war high.” On 11 September, diesel was forecast to reach that same watershed within days, and on 15 September, average prices moved past 170p a litre for petrol and 192p for diesel, the point at which the RAC said the cost of filling a family car had already risen by almost £5 from the start of the month.

How close diesel really is to an all-time high

The 199.09p record diesel price has stood from 25 June 2022, when the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent European wholesale fuel prices to their highest level on record. At 195.32p, current prices are within striking distance of that figure, and the RAC’s own week-on-week tracking suggests the gap could close within days if the current rate of increase continues. Williams said the last time diesel traded this high was in that same 2022 spike, more than three years ago, underlining how unusual the current run of rises has been outside of a full-blown global energy crisis.

Petrol has further to travel before matching its own record from the same period, but the current run has still wiped out more than three years of relative stability at the pumps. Both fuels had been broadly falling or flat for most of 2024 and early 2025, briefly dropping in June 2026 when diesel recorded its steepest one-month fall on record, before this year’s conflict reversed the trend within weeks.

Fuel duty is not the reason, for now

The current 5p cut to fuel duty, first introduced in March 2022 and repeatedly extended in the years that followed, remains in place and is not behind this month’s rises. A planned 1p increase due on 1 September was cancelled, along with a further 2p rise pencilled in for December, after the government opted to hold rates steady for the rest of the year. Separate increases of 3p from January and 2p from March 2027 are still scheduled to go ahead, which would add to pump prices on top of whatever the wholesale market is doing by then. For now, though, every extra penny drivers are paying is coming from the cost of oil and the wholesale fuel market, not tax.

Can you avoid it

There is no way to avoid the underlying rise in wholesale fuel costs, but the gap between the cheapest and most expensive fuel in the same town is often wide enough to make real savings possible. Supermarket forecourts, especially Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, consistently price several pence a litre below the UK average, while motorway service stations and small independent forecourts in rural areas tend to sit well above it. The gap between the two can run to 15p a litre or more on the same day, which on a full tank is the difference between a properly expensive fill-up and a merely uncomfortable one. Comparison tools such as PetrolPrices.com and the fuel finder built into apps like RAC’s own myRAC show live, station-by-station prices nearby, and checking before a long drive rather than filling up wherever is convenient can save several pounds on a single tank.

Timing counts too. Wholesale costs move faster than pump prices in either direction, so filling up sooner rather than later makes sense while the RAC is forecasting further rises, especially for drivers who know they need a full tank in the next week or two regardless. The reverse applies once prices start falling: forecourts are often slower to pass on wholesale price drops than wholesale price rises, so it can pay to wait a few extra days once a downward trend is confirmed rather than fill up at the first sign of a fall.

For high-mileage drivers, the more durable answer is reducing how much fuel a car uses in the first place. Keeping tyres correctly inflated, removing unnecessary roof boxes or racks, and avoiding harsh acceleration can each cut consumption by a noticeable margin over a full tank, and cost nothing to do. Drivers covering enough miles a year to make the sums work could also find that a hybrid or electric vehicle now costs less to run overall than continuing to absorb further diesel price rises, especially if they can charge at home rather than relying on the public network. Regional prices are worth a second look too: fuel in the South West and Northern Ireland has consistently run a few pence above the UK average this year, while parts of the North East and Yorkshire have tended to sit closer to, or below, it, so drivers relocating for work or planning a long trip should check local prices rather than assume the national average applies everywhere. None of these steps will bring diesel back down from the edge of a record price, but they can meaningfully soften what the next few months at the pump actually cost.

Sources: RAC Media Centre and Simon Williams, RAC head of policy, quoted by Business Motoring, published 18 September 2026; RAC Media Centre, “Fuel prices rise by a penny in 24 hours,” published 15 September 2026; RAC Media Centre fuel price statements, 4 to 14 September 2026; RAC Fuel Watch data.