Get used to the high price of petrol

0 0 March 23, 2022 Edit this post

As motorists reel from a sudden, sharp spike in petrol prices, there's some good news . . . and of course some bad news.

The good news is that it may encourage drivers to check out alternative forms of transport, such as hybrid or even electric vehicles, which don't require petrol or diesel -- at least not nearly as much.

But the move to electrification takes time and the bad news is that we shouldn't expect a drop in petrol prices any time soon.

At the time of checking the price of standard 91 unleaded in capital cities around Australia ranged from $2.09 cents a litre in Perth to a high of $2.23 a litre in Hobart, reports FuelPrice Australia.

FuelPrice has been monitoring the price of fuel since 2017 in Australia, with data drawn from a total of 8646 petrol stations across 230 Australian cities and towns.

At the same time, the price of diesel ranged from $2.18 to $2.30 cents a litre, with Perth and Hobart featuring again.

Taking a closer look, in Sydney, the price of 91 unleaded ranged from $176.7 to 222.9 cents a litre, across 923 stations.

It shows there are still savings of up to 47 cents a litre to be found, if you're prepared to look.

The recent rise in the price of fuel will see people re-evaluate their reliance on fuel in their everyday lives, but a shift away from fuel will take time, warns a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Charles Darwin University.

Rising fuel prices, however, are more likely to have an impact on the take up of electric vehicles than government subsidies, says Dr Maneka Jayasinghe.

“If war-induced supply constraints continue, we may not see a desirable reduction in fuel price in the short to medium term,” Dr Jayasinghe said.

“This may lead consumers to consider moving away from using fuel by choosing to work more from home or by buying fuel-efficient or electric cars in the long run.”

“It is hard to find a suitable substitute for fuel to switch immediately after a price hike, making the fuel a price inelastic good.

"Therefore, we may not observe a notable change in fuel consumption in the short run.

“However, in the long run, people have more choices such as switching to gas, diesel or electric vehicles -- or some form of public transport -- making demand for fuel more responsive to price changes than in the short run.”