Honda sells maker of (natural gas) refueling appliance

[DainBramaged]

Honda Motor Co. has sold FuelMaker Corp., of Toronto, for $17 million in cash to Clean Energy Fuels Corp.

FuelMaker manufactures the Phill, a device that compresses natural gas from a home line to fuel a vehicle. The Phill is used to refuel Honda's Civic CX, the only compressed natural gas-fueled passenger car on sale in the United States.

Honda is not pulling the plug on its involvement with natural gas vehicles, Honda spokesman David Iida said. Honda realized that Clean Energy was in a favorable position to expand the natural gas infrastructure, making the Phill and other devices more accessible for consumers.

"The new era of high fuel prices has created a dramatic increase in demand for lower-cost natural gas fueling in all transportation sectors, ranging from trucking to consumers," Andrew Littlefair, CEO of Clean Energy, said in a statement.

"Due to the greater worldwide acceptance of light-duty natural gas vehicles, we are broadening our strategic focus to offer fueling solutions for small fleets and consumers."

Clean Energy provides compressed and liquefied natural gas for transportation in North America. Its customers are refuse, transit, port, shuttle, taxi, trucking, airport and municipal fleets. Clean Energy fuels more than 14,000 vehicles daily across the United States and Canada.

"This acquisition continues our business expansion outside the United States where natural gas vehicle use has risen dramatically to more than 8 million vehicles worldwide," Littlefair said. "We expect the majority of FuelMaker's sales to be international in the near term."
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080910/ANA02/809109985/1186

I hope Clean Energy expands the availability of the device. And MAYBE provide conversion kits too.