Diesel fuel retail prices in the U.S. 1995-2023

The cost of diesel fuel in the United States reached an annual average of 4.21 U.S. dollars per gallon in 2023. This was a decrease compared to the previous year, when diesel sold for an average of nearly five U.S. dollars per gallon. Increased economic activity and thus fuel demand combined with supply constraints following the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, which resulted in a notable rise in monthly diesel prices.

Crude oil prices and their impact on motor fuel prices

Motor fuel prices largely mirror major oil benchmarks, such as the OPEC reference basket, WTI, and Brent. As such, the oil glut in 2015 and 2016, which followed years of increased oil production output by the U.S., is largely responsible for the fall in diesel prices seen in those years. The same is true for the 2020 pandemic-induced oil crisis and fall in benchmarks that year.

Diesel and gasoline price development

The usage of diesel began in the 1930s, but until further development in the 1960s, diesel vehicles were mostly used commercially. In the U.S., diesel-powered cars remain a fairly small portion of the automobile market and diesel fuel consumption is far lower than gasoline consumption. In general, gasoline also tends to be more widely available than diesel fuel and usually sells for a lower retail price. However, diesel engines have better fuel economy than gasoline engines, and as such are often used for large commercial vehicles.