Honda Opens First Compressed Natural Gas Fueling Station

Sept. 11, 2015
For more than 16 years, Honda Motor Co. was one of the leading proponents of natural gas as a transportation fuel in North America. From 1998 through 2015, four generations of the compact Civic sedan were available with a factory-installed compressed natural gas (CNG)-fueled powertrain. However, despite being one of the best-selling cars in North America, the CNG Civic never caught on and was discontinued earlier this year. Fortunately, Honda has not given up entirely on CNG and has refocused its efforts as a supplier of CNG to its own parts suppliers.Recognizing that the natural gas vehicle (NGV) market in

For more than 16 years, Honda Motor Co. was one of the leading proponents of natural gas as a transportation fuel in North America. From 1998 through 2015, four generations of the compact Civic sedan were available with a factory-installed compressed natural gas (CNG)-fueled powertrain. However, despite being one of the best-selling cars in North America, the CNG Civic never caught on and was discontinued earlier this year. Fortunately, Honda has not given up entirely on CNG and has refocused its efforts as a supplier of CNG to its own parts suppliers.

Recognizing that the natural gas vehicle (NGV) market in North America consists primarily of fleet and commercial customers rather than individual car owners, Honda recently opened a CNG refueling station at its Marysville, Ohio campus. Marysville is the site of Honda’s first and largest North American automotive assembly plant, as well as the headquarters of Honda R&D America. With a capacity of 440,000 vehicles a year, the Marysville plant is one of the largest in North America, receiving hundreds of deliveries every day. This made Marysville an ideal location for the first CNG refueling station at any of Honda’s North America facilities. The fast-fill CNG refueling station was designed, constructed, and is being operated by Chicago-based Trillium CNG, one of the leading developers of CNG refueling infrastructure.

“We designed the station to accommodate 2.5 million gallons per year,” said Honda spokesman Eric Mauk. “It is currently fueling over 1.0 million gallons per year and that translates to 75-80 fueling events per day. At 2.5 million gallons per year we would expect to see roughly 200 fueling events daily.”

According to Navigant Research’s Natural Gas Refueling Infrastructure report, the total number of CNG refueling stations in North America is projected to grow to only a little more than 1,800 over the next 10 years from 1,560 today, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.7%. Globally, the number of stations is projected to grow at 4.0% over the same time period.

This article originally appeared on Forbes