Ordinary Ledger: 11.3 cents between Saarland and North Rhine-Westphalia, and no diesel under €2.10 anywhere

Where you fill up still matters more than when the news says oil fell. The ADAC’s comparison of the 16 federal states, a snapshot taken at 11:00 CET on Tuesday from more than 14,000 stations reporting to the Federal Cartel Office’s fuel-price transparency unit, puts the cheapest litre of Super E10 in Saarland at €1.859¹. Berlin follows at €1.869, Saxony at €1.872¹.

The dear end. North Rhine-Westphalia is the most expensive state for E10 at €1.972, ahead of Lower Saxony at €1.967 and Hesse at €1.941¹. The ADAC puts the gap between Saarland and North Rhine-Westphalia at about 11.3 cents a litre¹. Desk arithmetic: on a 50-litre tank that is about €5.65.

Diesel reads differently. Berlin is cheapest at €2.100, then Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania at €2.105 and Saxony-Anhalt at €2.108; Baden-Württemberg is dearest at €2.218, ahead of Bavaria at €2.212 and, oddly, Saarland at €2.209¹. The spread is about 11.9 cents¹. Desk arithmetic: the cheapest state’s diesel still costs 24.1 cents more than the cheapest state’s E10. Saarland is the cheapest place in the country for petrol and the third-dearest for diesel, a reminder that one state is not one price.

The habit that works anywhere. The ADAC repeats its timing advice: fill up shortly before 12:00, when prices are at their lowest of the day; they jump at noon and then slide slowly¹. No state boundary changes that rhythm, and a price app costs nothing.

For you. You cannot move to Saarland for a tank of petrol. You can check before you drive, skip the motorway station, and keep the receipt. Over a winter that is more reliable than waiting for a barrel price to trickle down.