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On the Road Again
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Phill costs $4,000 to $4,300 and requires a $1,500 installation. Owners are eligible for a $1,000 federal tax credit and can fill up at home for about $1 or $2 dollars a gallon. FuelMaker has sold only about 400 of the stations in the United States.
Emanuel's legislation, which has yet to be voted on by the House, offers a further tax break for Phill owners, and a $90,000 credit and low-interest loans to service stations that install a natural gas pump.
But that may not be enough of an incentive for station owners, who are hesitant to give up space on their lots for a $150,000 pump that may not draw any business, said Ralph Bombardiere, executive director of the New York State Association of Service Stations and Repair Shops.
"There aren't enough cars out there to justify putting one of these things up on your own. You'd have to subsidize these things 100 percent," he said.
In Detroit, GM is the only automaker to show interest in revisiting natural gas. Larry Burns, GM's vice president of research and development, created buzz with a recent blog post saying his company was "taking a serious look at natural gas in the U.S."
In an interview, Burns said: "Energy prices have changed and the value propositions are out there that it shouldn't be big news or surprising that we're exploring natural gas."
To get around the fueling problem, GM has considered offering flex-fuel vehicles that could run on either natural gas or petroleum, Burns said. Although GM doesn't have formal plans for such vehicles, he said they have considered a flex-fuel pickup truck, which would be easy to outfit with the extra tank without giving up much space.
"The smart thing for an auto company to do today is to be set for a wide range of energy carriers," Burns said.
