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We will be traveling from Germany to Croatia via Austria and Slovenia and I'm currently planning on where to have stops and refuels. According to some websites I found, Slovenia seems to have the lowest fuel prize level of the countries involved with Germany being the most expensive and Austria and Croatia in between and roughly on par.

Those sites also state, that fuel might be somewhat more expensive on highway service stations than on fuel stations off highway. However, no figures have been given about how much premium is added in that case. In Austria I have made the experience that the highway service station premium can be somewhat in the range of 20% compared to the rest of the country, making refueling on such a station even more expensive than in Germany.

Can anybody comment on about how much of a premium is added in Slovenia compared to the "regular" price? I.e. is it worthwhile to leave the highway to refuel in some village or town nearby or is the premium acceptably small to save the time and distance and just take the slightly higher price?

Benedikt Bauer
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While prices are indeed higher at highway fuel stations, there may not be enough data to reliably claim what the difference in price between those stations and "inland" stations are.

Slovenia used to be one of the few EU countries where fuel prices were regulated exclusively by the government. In 2016 a three stage plan was unfolded to have the market regulate prices instead. The second stage in late 2016 deregulated prices on highways, while all other fuel stations still had to sell at (lower) state regulated prices. Complete liberalization of fuel prices was achieved in October 2020, during COVID19 crisis.

This article from October 2021 (one year after policy change) says that highway prices for diesel fuel were above 1.49€, while other stations ranged from 1.40 - 1.47€. For 95-octane unleaded, prices were ~1.39€ on highways, 1.294 - 1.352€ for the rest.

Our local auto-moto association keeps track (in Slovenian) of fuel prices abroad and locally, perhaps yours does too - you should check that before leaving.

You can find the official Slovenian government webpage on fuel prices here (in Slovenian). You can check per- fuel station prices for Slovenia here (in Slovenian) - anyone selling fuel in Slovenia is required to report their prices through this webapp.

Locals avoid using highway fuel stations for obvious reasons, even if it's just a couple of cents in difference. Be careful when filling up, there may be similar fuel types available at different prices.

While fuel prices have been deregulated in Slovenia, our government still holds the right to re-enact price regulation as per the Price Control Act.

In 2022, due to unstable fuel prices, the government decided to re-enact fuel price regulation for 95-octane unleaded and diesel fuel for the period from May 10th to August 10th*. All fuel stations (the ones on highways included) are required to sell at 1.560€ and 1.668€ per liter, respectively, during that period. Only the upper price bound is regulated, companies may sell at lower prices (but do not count on it).

*this changed again on June 15th: from June 21st, the prices for highway fuel stations become deregulated (chosen by market), while other stations should have prices that are comparable to non-highway stations in Croatia.

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