Forecourts are now offering price parity on diesel and petrol.

And diesel is set to become cheaper than unleaded for the first time in 10 years.

According to analysts at The Fuelcard Company, diesel will once again become the favoured choice. And will now dominate for a sustained period.

Jakes de Kock, marketing director, the Fuelcard Company, said: “In the current climate, everyone is looking at ways to cut costs.

“Company owners and their staff who still drive petrol vehicles should consider changing to diesel when they are replaced.

“Diesel cars have always been recognised as being more economical in terms of fuel consumption. But recent price hikes have created a lot of negativity around owning and running them. Now, the emerging dominance of diesel means savings can once again be made.

“The price of unleaded is set to stay higher in the medium-to-long-term. In addition, a business running diesel cars can save an average 2p to 3p extra per litre on pump prices by using fixed price fuel cards.

“These products can only be used to purchase diesel and not petrol.”

Diesel’s improved fortunes are because of rising demand for unleaded fuel in the US, coupled with a slump in global production – pushing prices up dramatically, says the Fuelcard Company. These developments coincide with road hauliers and fleets cutting heavy oil consumption, which has made for a supply surplus. Already the wholesale price of diesel is less than petrol.

Editor’s note: While The Fuelcard Company may be correct in their future trend predictions, the current price of fuel doesn’t currently support their supposition. Certainly not in the price of fuel around the Business Car Manager offices where I checked.

And, according to PetrolPrices.com, the average price of a litre of unleaded on Monday June 22 was 103.5p per litre. The average price of diesel was 105.3p per litre.

Diesel becomes cheaper than petrol