Natural Gas Vehicles

To complement our Electric Vehicle offerings, we are introducing cars and vans which run on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and filled with mains gas or, preferably, bio-gas.

This is not LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) which is often known by the trade name "Autogas," but the cleaner burning methane fuel - the same as used in homes and businesses for heating and cooking.

NGVs are re-engineered petrol-engined vehicles optimised to run on methane, with high-pressure storage tanks for the gas. Many vehicles will offer an additional small petrol tank for extended operating distances in exceptional circumstances giving a total range of between 250 and 750 miles and the ability to drive long distances when required even without access to gas.

NGVs offer many of the benefits of EVs: refuel at 'home' (or base of operations) using a slow overnight fill using a quiet, wall-mounted compressor. Rapid re-fill is possible at special filling stations and will become more available as vehicle numbers increase. For fleet operators we can install bunkering tanks for rapid fills to increase flexibility still further.

We feel that NGVs offer an environmentally sensitive option where the particular application requires high daily mileages (over 150 miles) exceeding the capabilities of even the newer generation of Electric Vehicles. It also permits larger, heavier vehicles such as minibuses and medium duty commercial vehicles which require greater flexibility. Emissions which affect air quality are much lower from NGVs and there is a modest 20% decrease in carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels.

Bio-gas

But why promote vehicles using a fossil fuel?! Well, using bio-gas produced from farm waste etc. by processes such as anaerobic digestion makes use of a waste product and produces a very low carbon life-cycle fuel, effectively minimising the CO₂ emissions.

In the same way that EVs must be recharged with 'green' electricity for them to be of significant environmental benefit, so must NGVs be refuelled with 'green' gas whenever possible.

We are working with partners to ensure that we can offer an economical low carbon supply of gas, ultimately bio-gas directly, using the existing mains, or via on-site tanks or cylinders which can be used if you are not on the gas grid.

Please contact us regarding NGV vehicles at biogas@eco-drive.co.uk or click on contact us.

Note: It is not practical to convert existing petrol (or diesel) vehicles to use CNG. The pressures involved are much higher than are used in LPG conversions and therefore require robust engineering by the vehicle manufacturers.