Honda Looking At Installing Natural Gas Pumps At Dealers

William Maley

Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com

March 9, 2012

Honda is currently the only automaker to sell a passenger vehicle that can run on Natural Gas, the Civic Natural Gas. There's one problem; to buy a Civic Natural Gas, a dealer has to be within a twenty-mile radius of a Natural Gas station. Currently, 270 Honda dealers in the U.S. sell it.

Honda wants to change that. The company is currently looking at installing Natural Gas pumps at its dealers to help increase sales of the Civic Natural Gas.

“If the dealer had a fueling station, it would really reduce some of that concern for the customer,” said Steve Center, U.S. vice president for environmental business development at Honda.

Honda is currently in negotiations with regulators in California to have pumps placed at two or more Honda dealerships this year.

"It's not our place to create infrastructure, but it's a chicken-and-egg situation and we're going to have to nurse that egg along," said Center.

However, its still an idea. Center said details like the cost of a CNG station at a dealership, how many vehicles it could serve a day, and how many can be established are being looked at. Honda will work with the dealers to gain the necessary permits, provide financing, and will apply for public incentives.

“Something like this helps fill in holes. We want to select a couple of test cases and walk through it,” Center said.

Source: Bloomberg