Maker of Natural Gas Fueling Systems Tanks

[Robbien]

Source: NYT

Natural gas is cheap and plentiful, and last summer the future for vehicles fueled by compressed natural gas — or CNG — looked bright. But then crude oil and gasoline prices tanked. Now, the future of CNG cars looks a lot less certain.

It hardly got any attention, but late last week FuelMaker, the Honda-owned maker of natural gas fueling systems — including a residential model called the “Phill” — filed for bankruptcy.

Clean Energy Fuels, a natural gas distributor owned by T. Boone Pickens, had been trying to buy the company from Honda for $17 million, but the two sides could never make a deal. The Phill, which has been on the market about six years, never caught on. Perhaps that is because it takes four hours to fill an empty tank with the device, and it costs up to $6,000.

Read more: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/maker-of-natural-gas-fueling-systems-tanks/

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Boone Pickens is still actively going around the US drumming up support for CNG cars ignoring the fact that it is now an impossible alternative without the ability to refuel from home supplies.