Fuel sales reached its lowest level since 1989 last year, Bovag reports based on an analysis of Statistics Netherlands figures.
It should come as no surprise that fewer kilometers were driven in 2020 as a result of the pandemic and therefore less refueling than in previous years. However, the decline appears to be very significant. Last year, we refueled a little over 12 billion liters of diesel, petrol and LPG in the Netherlands. That is 13 percent lower than the 13.8 billion liters that were pumped into our fuel tanks in 2019. Normally, more than a billion liters were refueled every month, but that turned out to be the case in just five months last year. In no month was sales as low as in April, when, with 818 million liters, refueling was about a third less than in the same month in 2019.
LPG sales have never been lower than last year. 202 million liters of LPG were refueled, almost 16 percent less than in 2019. In 1990, LPG sales were 1.7 billion liters, Bovag reports. Compared to 2019, there was also considerably less gasoline. In the Netherlands, 4.9 billion liters of petrol were refueled, almost 15 percent less than in 2019. To illustrate that: since 1996 no less than 5 billion liters of petrol have been refueled every year. Last year, diesel sales were also lower than in 2019, although the fact that freight traffic largely continued to operate last year resulted in a slightly limited decline. Last year, 6.9 billion liters were refueled, 11 percent less than in 2019. Since 1994, no less than 7 billion liters of diesel have been refueled every year, so a significant low point has been reached in that area too.