Spain was supposed to raise diesel in 2026. It was supposed

Almost no one buys diesel cars anymore. But the fact that the Government has a rise in this fuel on its hands is not good news. Firstly because, although almost no one buys it, many still own a diesel car. Second, because the vast majority of freight transportation continues to be diesel.

The question now is: will we see the promised rise?

What happens? That the deadline is over. Specifically, the one that the European Union gave to Spain to raise the price of diesel. The last one expired at the end of January and began in July of last year 2025. As you can imagine, Spain ignored its obligations and diesel is still subsidized.

Consequently, Europe has asked our Government for explanations because they have also realized that the taxes on this fuel remain unchanged. The intention is that 2026 would be the year in which, once and for all, consumers of gasoline and diesel cars would pay the same taxes.

1.1 billion euros. This is not the first time that the European Union has given a serious warning to our country. The last one cost us 1.1 billion euros and opened this extension that expired in January. Then, Spain received 23.9 billion euros corresponding to the fifth tranche of aid provided by the European Union within the framework of the Next Generation funds.

But that money would have been more if the country had complied with the obligation to raise the price of fuel (and a second related to employment). Something to which it has committed itself on various occasions to European officials but which it has also systematically failed to comply with.

2018. The issue of raising the cost of diesel for the end customer is not new by any means. In 2018, Teresa Rivera, then Minister of Ecological Transition, already made the Government’s position clear: “diesel’s days are numbered”he said at that time.

Since then, a calendar has been opened from which the months have been falling but which always has one more page to discard. Three years laterthe hum picked up strength again. On that occasion it was the blows of the coronavirus crisis and the War in Ukraine that postponed the issue again. In 2024the new attempt came to nothing because the Tax Reform that contemplated the increase in diesel ended up falling.

Last year, in the summer, was when the European Union rolled its eyes and gave Spain a new extension. The one that happened last January.

How would it be done? The simplest procedure is to eliminate the bonus that diesel currently has in our country in the Special Tax on Hydrocarbons. Therefore, right now we pay the following depending on the fuel refueled on this section:

• Unleaded gasoline 98: 431.92 euros/1000 liters or 0.432 euros/liter.
• Unleaded gasoline 95: 400.69 euros/1000 liters or 0.401 euros/liter.
• Diesel: 307 euros/1000 liters or 0.307 euros/liter.

To this section of the tax we must add the regional tax which, since 2019, has been linear at 7.02 cents/liters. This leaves us with a Special Tax on Hydrocarbons of:

• Unleaded gasoline 98: 0.504 euros/liter.
• Unleaded gasoline 95: 0.473 euros/liter.
• Diesel: 0.379 euros/liter.

The objective would be to raise this section of taxes and equalize diesel and gasoline 95. That is, an increase of almost 10 cents/liter. The question is whether this increase would be suffered by all drivers of diesel cars, regardless of whether they are professionals or not, or whether the latter would be left out completely or partially.

It will affect you. Raising diesel continues to be a very delicate issue in Spain. It is a fuel that has been rising and that has reduced its gap with gasoline in recent times. That, a political environment that has opted to criminalize this fuel and tough emissions regulations that They advise against its use if we repeat short journeyshave ended up sinking their sales. In January, only 4.5% of the market corresponded to diesel sales according to Anfac.

The problem is that more than half of the Spanish vehicle fleet is still diesel cars. Added to this is a huge fleet of professionals who will make their products more expensive if they have to pay more for diesel. And it is that much of the inflation During the first months of the Ukrainian War it came hand in hand with rising fuel prices.

And to that we must add that in those days the Government had to face a transport strike due to the increase in fuel prices, which ended up being solved with a general bonus to all drivers.

Photo | Ministry of the Presidency, Government of Spain on Wikimedia and Raymond Okoro

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