• The average cost of driving increased 27% for a typical petrol car in 2022 vs 2021
• London’s city center was the slowest to drive through in 2022, with an average speed of 11 mph (9 mph during rush hour)
• Dubliners lost the most amount of time to rush hour traffic, with drivers spending a further 27 hours stuck in traffic compared to 2021*
• In Bogota, congestion during rush hour increased a petrol car’s CO₂ emission by 41%
• Get the full ranking and interactive report at tomtom.com/Traffic-Index
  

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Feb. 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TomTom ( TOM2), the specialist in geolocation technologies, releases the 12th edition of its annual TomTom Traffic Index today, a report detailing traffic trends across 389 cities in 56 countries, throughout 2022. For the first time, TomTom has assessed traffic in each city and the cost of driving in terms of time, money as well as the environmental impact for a driven mile.

The rising cost of driving in 2022

Workers have increasingly been heading back to the office, with travel times seeing a rise across 62% of the cities (242 out of 389). With inflation spiking around the globe and the ongoing climate crisis, TomTom looked at the economic and environmental impact of the return to higher traffic levels. Interestingly, despite the rising costs of driving globally, it continues to be a major mode of transport in most cities.

2022 saw an increase in energy prices due to several factors (disrupted supply chains, bad weather, lower investments, etc.) – and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which greatly exacerbated the situation. With congestion, fuel consumption increased as well. Consequence: drivers around the world spent 27% more on average to fill up their petrol tanks than in 2021, while those driving diesel cars shelled out 48% more in 2022 than the year before. With fuel prices hitting the roof, Hong Kong became the costliest city to drive in, with more than US$1000 ($1023) spent by a driver commuting every day at rush hour*.

In major European cities, driving an electric vehicle proved to be an effective way of keeping travel costs lower and consistent – even more when charging at fast-charging DC stations. Data shows that in a city like London, EV drivers charging at a slow-charging point saved nearly half of what they would spend driving a combustion engine vehicle that relies on petrol. Moreover, the costs of driving an EV are significantly less volatile, as 2022 showed that prices of fuel can easily fluctuate within the course of a year, while electricity prices are less likely to change as frequently.

Ranking: The most expensive cities to drive

Average cost for 10,000 miles driven in 2022, in US dollars.