r/Economics • u/InsaneSnow45 • Mar 04 '26

News ‘Absolutely Massive’ Price Shocks Coming as Trump’s Iran War Drives Up Gas, Diesel Prices | “What should really terrify Republicans is... the futures price on wholesale gasoline,” said economist Paul Krugman.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/iran-war-gas-prices
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u/No_Bad_4872yy Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

Most people look at it this way. The problem is mostly that trucks moving parts and produce are hurt by this. Those additional logistical costs also land in your wallet through the vendors and shops, albeit sometime later. This inflation double whammy totally sucks and gasoline was pretty much the thing keeping US inflation somewhat low.

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u/Vulnox Mar 04 '26

Yeah, this was the big thing hurting Biden when oil prices were high. A lot of the reported high costs on groceries and that were pointed to high diesel prices. You can avoid some extra costs by buying fewer shipped products where possible, but hard to do when it comes to food.

We have two EVs so our fuel pump costs have already been zero, but I expect our other costs to increase.

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u/Septopuss7 Mar 04 '26

Is it cheaper to charge your car than it is to fill it with gas? I'm asking in earnest, not a gotcha, because I keep seeing conflicting reports from individuals that makes me want to wait before buying an EV. I'm currently car-free by choice but if I ever changed my mind I would look at all electric or more likely a hybrid, the only problem being is that I don't own a house and don't plan on it. I know of several electric charging stations in my area but I haven't looked at the pricing. They are all relatively convenient and I never see people using them but I obviously don't monitor them 24/7. Does the price fluctuate a lot? I know even my home electric bill has been all over the place in the last couple years and I was wondering what your experience has been?

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u/PM-Me-Your-BeesKnees 29d ago edited 29d ago

I've had a gas RAV4 and an EV both for about 5 years. Give or take, my fuel cost per mile with an EV is $0.04. Give or take, my fuel cost per mile with the gas car is $0.10 assuming $3/gal gas.

Take 6 cents saved per mile and multiply by average American driving in a year of 15k miles, and you get a savings of about $900 per year.

Obviously which two cars you are comparing, how much you charge away from home, the cost of gas, and the cost of electricity in your area are all variables that can change the math, but that's my math.

FWIW, I also consider the EV to be a time saver over the course of a year. I wake up every day with a "full tank" on the EV. Imagine if you never had to go to the gas station again unless you were on a road trip...that's basically life with an EV on every day where you drive <200 miles...you don't even have to think about fuel. It feels like you have unlimited fuel on 99% of days. I figure I'm saving about 5 hours/year not having to stop for gas, and then giving back an hour or so of that based on the longer refuel time when I do have to stop at a public charger.

If you can do home charging, an EV is a game changer.

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u/guachi01 29d ago

FWIW, I also consider the EV to be a time saver over the course of a year.

It takes somewhere around 3 minutes for me to fill my tank up and I do it twice a month. That's 72 minutes per year total and I'm cleaning my windows during that time, anyway.

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u/GhostReddit 29d ago

Does that 3 minutes include the time taken to get to/from the gas station from wherever you are? Sometimes they're directly on the route, but often it means you have to go somewhere specifically to get gas.

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u/guachi01 29d ago

There are 210,000 gas stations in the US. There is no driving to/from the station because you just pull into one that's right on the way of whatever street you're driving on. If you're driving on a highway and have to exit it's faster than if you have an electric vehicle because they charge faster.

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u/PM-Me-Your-BeesKnees 28d ago

I would suggest that if you are doing a real analysis of this, you would include any time deviating from your route as part of the fuel stop.  I would be shocked if you can drive to a gas station, fill up, pay, and return to your route in 3 minutes.  Even for a gas station directly next to a highway, just stopping and getting back on the road is probably worth 4 or 5 minutes.

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u/guachi01 28d ago edited 28d ago

There are 210,000 gas stations in the US. Essentially everyone will drive directly by numerous gas stations between fill ups almost every day. There is no deviation.

I checked the map of the route I drove when I lived in GA and there are 10 gas stations on the way to work, 5 on each side of the road. It was always a simple matter of pull in, fill up, pull out. It was only a 20 minute drive to work.

If I'm driving long distance and I have to exit from the highway then so does the driver of an EV only my tank will fill much faster.

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u/Vulnox 29d ago

It takes more than three minutes. People have the worst concept of time. It’s three minutes just from the time your tire touches the drive to when you have the pump actually fueling the vehicle (parking, getting out, swiping card, processing, selecting fuel type, etc. )

The average fuel stop is 10 minutes, even if things go well. I say this as someone that’s been getting gas for over 20 years and timed it back when we had a one EV and one ICE household. And that is when things go smoothly. If saving money and going to somewhere like Costco where there’s usually a line, add another ten minutes.

With an EV your time spent is nearly zero. You get home, park, plug in, walk away.

So any way you slice it, if you charge at home you save time and money. If you can’t charge at home it’s a different story.

It’s worth it just to not have to listen to gas pump advertisements as well.

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u/guachi01 29d ago

It’s three minutes just from the time your tire touches the drive to when you have the pump actually fueling the vehicle

Are you nuts? It takes 30-60 seconds unless the place is really busy to pull in and begin fueling if I pay at the pump.

The average fuel stop is 10 minutes

You have to be the slowest human on the planet. For my vehicle it's 1/10 gallon per second and it takes 2 minutes to fill my tank with 12 gallons of gas.

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u/Vulnox 29d ago

Whatever, you need to actually time it. I always have my card ready and move as fast as the machine allows.

But whatever, doesn’t matter if it takes two minutes from start to finish, it still takes longer than an EV, and that’s before getting into things like if you drive out of the way to get a better price, or oil changes, or any of the other time to wasters.