Posted
French-speaking SwitzerlandThe cheapest gasoline is no longer in Neuchâtel
The proximity of the Cressier refinery no longer has the impact it once had on the price of fuel.
In Orvin (BE) last summer, we had to tape a “2” on a panel that was not intended to pass the 2-franc threshold.
lematin.ch/Vincent Donzé
Neuchâtel service stations no longer offer gasoline at the cheapest prices in French-speaking Switzerland as usual. The media “ArcInfo» noticed it while consulting the fuel price comparator of the «TCS”: the cheapest gasoline is in the canton of Fribourg, at 1.62 francs.
Four years ago, the RTS program “À bon entendre” made a tour of the price of gasoline in French-speaking Switzerland. The cheapest station was then located in a small shopping center in Champion (BE), ahead of Neuchâtel stations ten to twenty centimes cheaper per liter than in other cantons, due to the proximity of the Cressier refinery.
Enclave fiscale
Everything has changed, according to the comparator launched by the TCS on November 28. In Gampelen, the price remains competitive at 1.68 francs for unleaded 95, but with the exception of Samnaun, a tax enclave located in Graubünden, the cheapest gasoline in Switzerland is found in Riaz (FR), 1.62 francs, in the heart of a region with an average price of 1.65 francs.
According to “ArcInfo”, the cheapest Neuchâtel resorts in 2019 are now at 1.77 or 1.78. The three most interesting pumps in the canton are at 1.74 francs in Neuchâtel and Saint-Aubin. Absent from the TCS comparator, the Grenacher station in La Chaux-de-Fonds is at 1.74, a rate also charged on the Geneva side.
Aggressive prices
According to TCS spokesman Massimo Gonnella, some independents with a good location and low charges are offering aggressive prices that are dragging their neighbors down in their wake. On the other hand, the owners of the small shopping centers of Gampelen, Boudevilliers and Boudry seem less inclined to attract at all costs a clientele mainly interested in fuel prices.
The TCS recommends the “three 5s” rule: earning 5 cents per liter is only worth it for a 5 km detour (10 km return) and a 50 liter fill-up.