AA calls for petrol companies to display premium prices

Fuel companies should display premium petrol prices outside their stations to stop them ‘‘price gouging’’ customers, the Automobile Association says.

The AA said some motorists were being short-changed by a lack of information about which premium fuels petrol companies were selling, and how much it cost.

Senior policy analyst Mark Stockdale said some motorists were not aware petrol companies do not automatically discount premium fuel prices alongside regular fuel, meaning they were often paying more than they realised.

The industry standard was for 95 octane fuel to cost nine cents more per litre than 91 octane, and for 98 octane to cost 17 cents more than 91. But when the price of 91 octane was dropped and premium fuel prices were left unchanged, motorists were paying up to 30 cents more per litre, which the AA’s 1.6 million members saw as price gouging, Stockdale said.

‘‘People need to be informed as to what fuel they’re buying,’’ he said.

‘‘Petrol companies obviously believe it is advantageous to display the price of 91 octane and diesel fuel on their roadside display boards, so why don’t they apply the same logic here? What have they got to hide?’’

Displaying all fuel prices on service station boards would leave motorists more informed and could lead to cheaper premium fuel prices by increasing competition, Stockdale said.

Consumer New Zealand spokeswoman Sue Chetwin said displaying premium prices would be a huge benefit to customers.

She also called on companies to display their premium prices online.

But petrol companies have hit back, saying that, unlike regular unleaded and diesel fuel, premium fuels were not the same quality across the board.

‘‘I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to have [premium prices] displayed because they’re not comparable,’’ Gull chief operating officer Ulrik Olsen said.

Premium fuels differed not only by their octane rating, but also by their chemical make-up, he said.

But Stockdale said that only emphasised the need for information to be displayed.

Z Energy spokesman Jonathan Hill said the issue did not seem to be important to its customers, given about 80 per cent of its petrol sales were regular or diesel fuel.

‘‘We’ve not taken a single call from a member of the public about it,’’ Hill said.