Morning edition · Tuesday, 3 November 2026
Ordinary Ledger: 15.2 cents back on petrol, 12.5 on diesel, from a 17-cent rebate
October's fuel bill fell after the tank rebate. The ADAC's monthly review shows how much of the tax cut reached your receipt, and where it got stuck.
The ADAC has added up October at the pump, and for once the line on the household ledger went the right way. A litre of Super E10 cost an average of €2.114, about 15.2 cents less than in September; diesel averaged €2.261, down 12.5 cents1. The main reason, the club says, is the tank rebate (Tankrabatt) that started on 1 October and runs to the end of the year1.
The ledger. - Super E10, October average: €2.114 per litre, down 15.2 cents1. - Diesel, October average: €2.261 per litre, down 12.5 cents1. - Tank rebate, as the ADAC calculates it: about 17 cents per litre1. - Dearest E10 day: 13 October, €2.151. Cheapest: 30 October, €2.0681. - Dearest diesel day: 27 October, €2.289. Cheapest: 7 October, €2.2261.
Where the cut went. The ADAC’s reading is that most of the roughly 17 cents reached drivers of petrol cars, while for diesel the relief “only partly” arrived1. It wants the rebate passed on in full, and says prices remain too high and “not fully understandable”1. Desk arithmetic: the monthly fall equals about nine-tenths of the rebate for E10 and about three-quarters for diesel. Other costs moved in October too, so treat that as a rough guide, not a verdict on any one station.
At your tank. Desk arithmetic: at October’s averages, 50 litres of E10 cost €105.70, about €7.60 less than at September’s level; 50 litres of diesel cost €113.05, about €6.25 less. Diesel ended the month 14.7 cents a litre dearer than E10 on average.
The cheapest variable is still the day. Between the dearest and cheapest E10 days the gap was 8.3 cents, or about €4.15 on a 50-litre fill (desk arithmetic)1. The ADAC points to its “ADAC Drive” app, which compares prices at more than 14,000 stations around the clock1. Any of the official price-comparison apps will do the same job. You do not need to chase pennies across town. You need to avoid filling up on the dear evening because you forgot in the cheap morning.
The rebate ends on 31 December1. That is a date for your calendar, not a reason to hoard fuel in jerrycans. Nothing here is investment advice.
What to watch
A tax cut is a promise to the till. The receipt is where you check it was kept.
Sources
- Tankrabatt bringt im Oktober leichte Entspannung an den Zapfsäulen — ADAC e.V., 02 Nov 2026.
Every figure in this piece traces to a source above or to the desk’s own arithmetic on those sources, marked as such. Quotations are short and attributed. Spot an error? Write to the desk; corrections are logged on the method page.
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