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Crazy how cheap gasoline is in USA. $4 is still basically half as much as anywhere in Europe even when there isn't a war.
Driving isn't nearly as important in Europe though.
American households spend 16% of their income on transportation, while European 11% on average.
https://itdp.org/2024/01/24/high-cost-transportation-united-...
In absolute numbers the gap is considerably wider due to differences in salaries. And all that while cars and fuel are significantly cheaper in the US.
In the co-working space I rent there are around 50 parking spots and half as much bicycle stands. In the warm period between the solstices the latter is packed and I have trouble finding a stand.
I started cycling mostly because they removed the free gravel parking area not counted in the usual spots, but I've found I don't miss driving as much as I thought I would.
The majority (60-70%) of Europeans still commute by car. Distances might be shorter and their cars might use less fuel but on the whole its still more appealing option for most people (despite quite a few countries trying to actively change it by making it more expensive and leas convenient).
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
A big part of it is taxes, European countries tend to tax fuel pretty heavily.
If heating oil is still a thing where you are, compare its prices to diesel (especially historically). They’re nearly the same product, the difference is almost entirely fuel taxes.
In the UK, farm vehicles use a specially dyed Red Diesel, which is the same liquid with a chemical added to it to turn it red. It’s taxed at a much lower rate, so you’ll sometimes pass petrol stations selling two Diesel from two different pumps, one of which is around half the price of the other.
If you’re caught running red diesel on a normal carriageway, the penalty can be steep.
We used to have red diesel for agricultural use which was tax exempt. So they added a coloring agent which would make your tank red and thus noticeable if you used it in a regular car.
Americans also drive A LOT more than Europeans on average, and generally (is my suspicion at least) with a lot bigger/less efficient engines
Not too sure about the engines as of late. Bigger and heavier vehicles - yes, but still mostly rural/highway, and at way lower speeds than the EU. Overall, IMO it's just the distances involved.
Not so much the efficiency of the engine but the weight and size of the vehicle. Almost all new cars in the US are turbo charged 4 cylinders if not hybrids or pure electric, but US consumers do prefer larger vehicles which are less aerodynamically efficient wnd heavier, which is really a direct result of the distance and reliance on the vehicle Americans have.
It's cheap but you also travel a lot in the US. Specially in the southern states because everything is so far.
Anecdotal reference, my children's school is roughly 3 miles, so I spend a gallon of gas every day with 2 round-trips.
That number was zero in Netherlands because all schools are either walkable or bike able.
Supermarkets and restaurants are 5 miles away easily.
Heck, my neighbor (door to door) is 0.4 miles.
> roughly 3 miles, so I spend a gallon of gas every day with 2 round-trips
You get 12mpg?
In metric, 19.2km of driving burns 4.5 litres of petrol?
Is that right? That seems absurdly high even for a large ute.
Lots of EU people are now travelling longer distances due to housing prices and job relocations.
My last commute in Germany was 1.5 hr one way and some of my colleagues had 2.5 hr commutes. Hybrid hours though.
> Anecdotal reference, my children's school is roughly 3 miles, so I spend a gallon of gas every day with 2 round-trips.
12mpg! What do you drive?
True although a big component of the energy prices in Europe are due to policy driven taxation. There is a huge difference in intra EU petrol prices from around 6$/gal to 10$/gal.
Well the US could just pump their wells and outproduce the entire rest of the world in crude oil and refined products like gasoline if it wanted to. Or if it was forced to.
There's a Jevons Paradox type thing where they ended up spending roughly the same to travel a mile due to Japan or the EU pushing for efficiency due to needing to import the fuel (might be visible in California too due to them fighting their geography that causes smog).
Possibly the EU is pulling ahead on price per mile now with the shift to EVs.
> Crazy how cheap gasoline is in USA.
1 USgal is 3.78L, and so US$ 4/gal is a little under $1/L. Convenient comparison page:
yep, that' like 0.92 EUR per liter and in Germany average price is around 2.3 EUR per liter
It's not cheap when your budgeting depended on how much it cost before. Americans are mostly poor, however else we look to you across the ocean.
We don't have cool trains and double-deckers that you guys are accustomed to. Different can of worms, I know. Our own doing.
And your point is what exactly?
That is 0.923 Euros a Liter according to Google.
That's dirt cheap.
There are many variables to prices, like larger cities, longer commutes (US drivers drive 2x km per year compared to Germany), bigger cars with worse gas mileage - so higher taxes on gas with higher gas prices (like in Germany) would probably kill the US economy.
I do understand that. I am not invalidating the reasons behind it, but it doesn't change the fact it's cheaper. Here we also have trucks, cars etc that take long commutes and thus a very high price will bring the price of transpiration up.
Also I would argue it's maybe better for the US to use smaller cars, since it thus becomes quite cheap to drive. Also this would probably make the roads safer, as bigger cars (mostly) equal unsafer cars (and shit drivers, but that's just my opinion tbh).
How is it much more expensive in europe? cos in india where we import most of our ONG and its one of the more expensive things on a household bill, it is right now 102INR/L = 0.93 EUR/L.
Okay sorry it's 11 days later, but: mostly taxes etc. Also because the fuel is 'made' partly here (refined), it makes it more costly since workers and also taxes are higher.
Also the Netherlands where I live is very expensive, while Sweden it's 0,50 cents at least lower.
How many liters per 100 km does a typical US car consume?
I have no idea, and what do you mean by 'typical US car'? Like a US car model or just the fact Americans drive more?
A lot of Europeans do drive as much as Americans do, like me and truckers etc. Having 2,34 a liter here in NL makes that a pain in the arse.
Also: using more fuel on average doesn't invalidate that American fuel, compared to Europe, is dirt cheap.
Edit: also wanna add there are many 'American' cars on the road here, like Ford F-150s etc. They are imported, but have the same fuel consumption as the US variant, as being the same as the US variant.
My wife drives a VW that's built locally in Tennessee. The engine is from Mexico, the transmission used be from Japan. I think it's a Korean unit now produced on a license.
Optimistically, it drinks about 11L per 100KM. Stop and go will severely increase consumption.
It's a large car to you, but it's kind of midsize here.
I thought wait isn't it lower, but that's imperial gallon which is about 3/4l more per gallon. I always mess those up.
Imperial is the British variant right?
A somewhat related discussion on this topic [1].
[1] - https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/the-oil-price-myste...
It should be $200 per gallon, we need to reduce depenency on petrol!
People will just buy diesel cars then. That happened in Europe, people bought diesel cars because it was cheaper, because of taxes. Not great for the environment.
Make $200 per gallon of diesel? This has the potential to collapse entire economies. Shipping will be more expensive, which will in turn make everything more expensive. Food will be more expensive too, tractors use diesel. Few things don't depend on diesel at some point or another.
Tax only the fuel used by cars? Many people still need their car to work, not every job can be remote, at $200 a gallon, you may as well quit, unless you get paid the difference, which again will increase the price of things.
Maybe a few decades from now, if could be $200 a gallon without breaking everything, but certainly not now.
Sometimes countries can formulate energy policies that accomplish two goals at once.
They can keep taxes on refined petroleum products low in order to not destroy the present economy, while simultaneously fostering a budding renewable energy industry. USA is the second largest producer of renewable energy in the world behind only China. California + Texas by themselves rank 6th in the world.
I wonder what happens to that gas price once the SPR can no longer be drawn from?
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W...
They become volatile. The SPR is a short term buffer.
Where are they getting it? Four weeks ago, the president said that in four weeks the country would run out of oil. Russia already ran out of gasoline.
Its China. They slashed oil imports massivly. They use their reserves (as a lot of other countries also do) to help asia.
Much of the time, these estimates are just extrapolated. Someone out there must be producing more oil when there's a shortage.
> already ran out of gasoline
A bit of exaggeration there.
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Also will be interesting what happens when the SPR runs out.
Still cheaper than Cola
Good thing we have a subsidy to encourage people to buy EVs.
Ohh wait…
I suspect the price will be directly subsidized to keep folks happy. Since we’re in wacky world this subsidy will be inconsistent depending on where you are.
Blue States will be left with gas going to 6$ or more and Red States will probably have prices subsidized down to 4$.
That has already happened. Lower state gas taxes and friendly to refineries on their land = cheaper gas. Oil is already heavily, heavily subsidized: https://e360.yale.edu/digest/republican-spending-bill-fossil...
That one alone is over $100 per person per year, so we all paid extra, even those who don't drive.
Even with all that we're still at $4/gal.
As long as memory prices stay low.
Oh wait.
The price increases will continue until morale improves.