Europe’s Diesel Drivers Pay €32 Extra Per Tank as Refinery Margins Quadruple

Filling a 50-litre diesel tank in Europe now costs €32 more than it did in February, and a new analysis by Transport & Environment points to refinery margins as a significant part of the explanation. Profit margins at European refineries climbed from around €0.10 per litre in February to €0.41 per litre by mid-September — roughly a fourfold increase — with approximately half of the extra pump-price burden attributed directly to that margin expansion.

Fuel company profits across the region doubled in a single quarter. Commercial trucking absorbs a large share of expensive imported diesel, and T&E argues the pattern illustrates a broader vulnerability. A separate study cited in the analysis found that battery-electric trucks are already cheaper to run for nearly half of all trucks sold in the EU; the same research projects that rolling back green-fleet targets would cut electric-truck sales by half.

T&E frames faster electrification as one route to reducing exposure to future oil-price volatility. The organisation opposes broad fuel-tax cuts as a response to the current price spike, arguing instead for windfall levies on energy-sector profits. The revenue, it suggests, should go toward support for lower-income households, expanded public transport, and vehicle scrappage schemes.

The group also urged the European Commission to treat diesel dependence as an economic risk on par with reliance on gas imports — a call to widen the energy-security debate beyond the fuel markets that have dominated policy attention since 2022.

Source: CleanTechnica