How much petrol and tolls will cost to go away this Easter weekend

While South Africans have seen some relief from the rise in fuel costs experienced in 2022, petrol and diesel in South Africa remain expensive, making long-distance trips costly.

MyBroadband compared the cost of travelling to some of South Africa’s most popular holiday routes in three different vehicles — the Volkswagen Polo 1.0 TSI, Renault Duster 1.5DCi, and a Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid.

Diesel vehicle owners may feel less hard hit than those with petrol cars, with the fuel price adjustment for April 2023 seeing the cost of a litre of diesel drop by between R0.74 and R0.82 depending on whether you are inland-based or coastal.

Motorists with petrol-powered cars only saw a decrease of R0.01 to R0.08 per litre.

From 5 April 2023, motorists with diesel cars are paying wholesale prices of R20.88 per litre inland and R20.16 per litre at the coast. Garages can set their own retail markup on diesel, and motorists will pay different prices depending on where they fill up.

For our comparison, we used the gazetted wholesale diesel price for April 2023 and added a 15% markup.

Those with petrol-powered cars pay at least R22.64 per litre of unleaded 93 inland and R21.92 per litre at the coast. Unleaded 95 costs R22.97 inland and R22.25 per litre at the coast.

Further adding to travel bills this long weekend is South Africa’s annual toll price hikes, which came into effect on 1 March 2023. The Department of Transport published the gazetted changes on 10 February.

To estimate the fuel cost along some of South Africa’s most popular routes, we used consumption figures from three cars — a small petrol vehicle, a bigger diesel-powered car, and a hybrid.

For the small petrol car, we selected the Volkswagen Polo 1.0 TSI, for which Volkswagen claims the vehicle averages 5.4l/100km on a combined cycle. This works out to approximately 18.5 kilometres per litre.

The family-sized diesel car we selected is the Renault Duster 1.5DCi, which manages an average consumption of 4.8l/100km, or 21 kilometres per litre.

We also compared a car with a hybrid drive train — the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid — which claims a 4.3l/100km average. This equates to approximately 23 kilometres per litre.

While the routes compared in the article are all highway routes, the consumption figures will likely be lower for an unloaded vehicle. However, people generally load cars with passengers and luggage when travelling for a holiday.

The hybrid also tends to perform better in urban settings, and its fuel consumption on the long road will likely be worse.

Our analysis found that the N1 route from Pretoria to Polokwane was the most expensive per kilometre for all three vehicles.

It was followed by the N4 route between Pretoria and Nelspruit and the N4 between Pretoria and Rustenburg.

The cheapest road compared was the N2 between Cape Town and George. However, this is primarily due to a lack of toll gates along the route.

Comparing the three vehicles, the Volkswagen Polo worked out to be the most expensive of the lot, with the Corolla Cross being the cheapest.

However, the real-world performance of the Cross might be much closer to the Duster in terms of freeway driving.

To put it into perspective, between Johannesburg and Cape Town, motorists can save around R130 by driving the Duster rather than the Polo.

The tables below show the findings for each car, with a cost-per-kilometre figure to show the least and most expensive routes.

Volkswagen Polo 1.0 TSI

Renault Duster 1.5 DCi

Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid

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How much petrol and tolls will cost to go away this Easter weekend