Petrol is now EUR 0.130 a litre cheaper than diesel: EUR 6.50 a tankful, EUR 117 over 15,000 km

Statistics Netherlands publishes a weighted average pump price for every day, including value added tax and fuel duty, built from actual Travelcard transactions. The most recent day in the series is 21 September 2026: Euro95 petrol at EUR 2.449 a litre, diesel at EUR 2.579, and liquefied petroleum gas at EUR 0.946. Diesel is EUR 0.130 a litre dearer than petrol, and that is not one day of noise. Reading back through the series, the last day diesel was cheaper than Euro95 was 9 September 2026, when diesel stood at EUR 2.460 against petrol at EUR 2.464, a gap of EUR 0.004. From 10 September onward diesel has been the more expensive fuel every single day. On 1 January 2026 the same series had petrol at EUR 1.963 and diesel at EUR 1.734, so diesel was EUR 0.229 cheaper. In nine months the gap has flipped.

• Put your own car in: the extra you now pay each year equals annual kilometres divided by 100, times litres per 100 kilometres, times EUR 0.130. A car doing 15,000 kilometres a year at 6 litres per 100 comes to 150 x 6 x EUR 0.130 = EUR 117.00. At 25,000 kilometres and 7 litres per 100 it is 250 x 7 x EUR 0.130 = EUR 227.50. Filling a 50-litre tank costs EUR 6.50 more in diesel than the same volume of petrol.
• The swing matters more than today's gap. Diesel was EUR 0.229 cheaper on 1 January and is EUR 0.130 dearer on 21 September, so the two ends are EUR 0.359 a litre apart. Run the same car through the same formula and 150 x 6 x EUR 0.359 = EUR 323.10. That is the size of the error anyone who chose a fuel type in January is now carrying on this one line of their running costs.
• The gas column stood at EUR 0.946 on 21 September, which is 38.6 percent of Euro95. Cost per kilometre is only part of running a car, though: road tax and insurance are banded by fuel type and this series does not include them. Do not switch on the fuel column alone; put the road tax in the same sum before comparing.
• Read the series for what it is. This is a daily weighted national average published once a week, so the newest entry usually trails today by a few days. It averages the whole country, with motorway service stations normally sitting above the figure and unmanned stations below it. For the station you actually use, treat this as the baseline rather than the price.

Hokimi field note: if you are choosing a used car right now, run that formula with your real annual distance before picking a fuel. A lot of people are still working from the idea that diesel is the cheaper fuel, and in this country that stopped being true in September. Sources: source 1, source 2, checked on 2026-09-24.