South Africans spent R70 billion on petrol and diesel in 3 months

South African motorists spent nearly R70 billion buying petrol and diesel between June and August 2026, despite taking home lower fuel volumes.

This is according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), which reported petrol station revenue from fuel sales, measured at current market prices, jumped 19.9% year-on-year over the three months ending August 2026.

Fuel retail generated R69.75 billion in revenue over these three months, up from R58.17 billion in the corresponding period of 2025.

Despite this massive year-on-year increase in spending, South Africans are actually worse off than a year ago.

When deflated to constant 2019 prices to measure physical volume, fuel sales actually collapsed by 5.7% year-on-year, while real sales volume dropped to R39.3 billion from R41.7 billion a year earlier.

According to Stats SA’s data, fuel sales served as the single largest negative contributor to overall real motor trade volume growth, yet simultaneously stood as the largest positive driver of nominal monetary growth.

Over the three months, motorists paid nearly a fifth more in total rand expenditure while taking home significantly fewer actual litres of fuel, despite petrol and diesel remaining relatively steady over the period.

What Stats SA found is that high pump prices forced drivers to curtail non-essential journeys, leading to sustained multi-month drops in physical fuel consumption.

Discovery Insure’s fuel transactions and telematics data picked up that everyday driving habits remained largely unchanged since fuel prices started spiking.

It found that trips fell by 10% and kilometres travelled by 9% in April, and considering trips and distances travelled were down 8% by May, motorists were travelling 9% less than before the increases.

From June to September, trips and kilometres travelled were slightly higher than the same period in 2025, then after October’s fuel price increase, trips fell again by 6%, while kilometres travelled declined by 7%.

South Africans are spending R1,000 more for 33% less fuel

Discovery found that motorists are significantly cutting their fuel purchases, buying smaller amounts more often, and slashing refills by up to a third.

Fuel purchases among its clients fell 33% in volume in October after the fuel price increase pushed inland 95 unleaded petrol above R30 per litre for the first time.

Looking at data from more than 200,000 clients, the insurer found that the average amount purchased per transaction fell from about 36 litres to 31 litres in months with big price increases.

It also found that purchases of less than 20 litres are increasing, accounting for around 36% of transactions in 2026, up from 25% in 2025.

These smaller purchases currently account for nearly 40% of transactions around payday.

According to Discovery Insure’s data, monthly fuel expenditure rose from an average of R1,750 at the beginning of 2025 to between R2,500 and R2,700 by mid-2026, an increase of up to R950.

Its telematics also showed motorists visiting fuel stations more often ahead of price increases, with monthly visits rising from 2.4 to just over 3, whether fuel prices are increasing or decreasing.

This suggests that motorists are adjusting how they fill up in anticipation of price increases, rather than always rushing to fill up before an increase.

However, it does point toward some motorists panic-buying before higher prices take effect.

The insurer found that in October, fuel purchasing volumes surged by 300%, with diesel purchases up 400%, shortly before the month’s price adjustments took effect.