Low-cost gas stations increase the price difference compared to traditional gas stations by reducing discounts

Average price difference between petrol stations automatic and traditional is 15 cents per liter fuel facing this Easterafter downward revision discounts provided by large oil companies, according to data from the National Association of Automatic Service Stations (Aesae), after analyzing the prices published on the Geoportal of gas stations of the Ministry of Energy Transition.

Large oil companies in the country continued with the arrival of the month of April, and on the eve of Easter, to withdraw in their offer of fuel prices that they applied in the last months, a discount of about 10 cents per liter, which they kept despite the fact that 20 cents bonus per liter of fuel at the end of 2022, subsidized by the Government.

More precisely, the association of gas station employers low price estimates that the difference in prices in different communities ranges between 10 cents and 18 cents per liter of gasoline 95 and diesel, also for the first time exceeding the difference of 10 cents in all autonomous communities.

Navarra is where consumers using 95 gasoline can save the most when choosing a station, since the average difference between automatic and traditional gas stations is 19 cents. On the other hand, in the Basque Country, the biggest difference in diesel is 18 cents.

The president of Aesaa, Manuel Jiménez Perona, emphasized that “you can see a direct relationship between the implementation of automatic gas stations and the difference in prices in different communities.”

“In the case of Navarre and the Basque Country, where the presence of this type of station is among the smallest, we found that the price difference is very high, due to the lack of competition from traditional stations,” he added.

For their part, the autonomous communities with the lowest difference in gasoline prices 95 are Murcia (10 cents), Islas Baleares (11 cents) and Castilla La Mancha, Asturias, Castilla y León and La Rioja (13 cents).

As for diesel, the smallest difference is offered by Catalonia (10 cents), the Balearic Islands (11 cents), Murcia, Aragon and Asturias (12 cents).

Savings of 20 euros per vehicle

According to Aesae’s calculations, this can mean a saving of around 20 euros per vehicle during this weekwhich represents a total saving of about 320 million euros, adding the savings of the 16 million trips that DGT predicts these days.

Automatic gas stations already represent 18.3% of the market, and thanks to the competitive pressure they create, they help lower prices in stressed areas.

Despite the business model that is spreading in Spain, the sector condemns that there are still obstacles from local organizations to its implementation.