Any Cng drivers here?

Istvan

Member
Joined
May 15, 2009
Messages
16
Location
Leuven - Belgium
Car(s)
VW Golf VII Bluemotion
I need to buy a new car in the near future and the force is strong with the Golf TGI.

I didn't get results when searching this forum for "CNG" or "TGI". Are there users with first hand experience here?
 
I need to buy a new car in the near future and the force is strong with the Golf TGI.

I didn't get results when searching this forum for "CNG" or "TGI". Are there users with first hand experience here?

I suspect that most here won't have experience with one of these as it's not really a enthusiast choice. Your best bet would be to test drive one and see how you get on.
 
It would be for me if there was infrastructure for it. Since there is not, I don't see the point.
 
You can but, I remember hearing Ford offered some of their trucks and crown Victoria's with CNG systems. Fleet only I believe.
 
Never heard of CNG here, only ever seen it in those videos where the tanks on buses explode. LPG barely took off here so the infrastructure for that is rubbish but I wonder how filling at home would work out price and economy wise compared to an electric car.
 
I test drove the Seat Leon and it runs just like a normal petrol car. It has a 50 liter petrol tank and a 15kg cng tank. At the moment you don't pay any roadtaxes in Belgium and cng is about 30% cheaper than petrol. I have 2 petrolstations that supply cng in the near vicinity of my home and 1 near my future workplace. Because of the small cng tank I would have to tank twice a week.
 
Never heard of CNG here, only ever seen it in those videos where the tanks on buses explode. LPG barely took off here so the infrastructure for that is rubbish but I wonder how filling at home would work out price and economy wise compared to an electric car.

Easy. At least in the US, a vast majority of houses have natural gas ran to them. It would be a matter of upgrading your regulator and meter and upping the pipe diameter in the house to feed not just your furnace, stove and water heater but also a filling station. That would almost make more sense to have rather than electric...
 
i thought you're supposed to install one at home?
like this

Banned from most residences in the US due to large, block-wiping natural gas explosions caused by home fueling stations the last time we tried CNG en masse in the 1970s. CNG refueling stations are now mostly restricted to commercial and fleet installs - no home install.

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You can but, I remember hearing Ford offered some of their trucks and crown Victoria's with CNG systems. Fleet only I believe.

Ford did offer the CVPIs in CNG but they were more than disappointing - they lost a lot of power and when the fuel ran below about half a tank the car lost even more power; I drove several surplussed ones while looking for the CVPI I eventually bought (non-CNG). Honda offered a CNG Civic for municipal fleets that has had a tepid reception at best.

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Easy. At least in the US, a vast majority of houses have natural gas ran to them. It would be a matter of upgrading your regulator and meter and upping the pipe diameter in the house to feed not just your furnace, stove and water heater but also a filling station. That would almost make more sense to have rather than electric...

Yeah, we've been there before. The result (in the US anyway) is exploding houses due to the usual conduct of homeowners. That's why it's banned now.

Most of the "home" type alternate natural gas type vehicle fueling in the US these days is LPG/propane. You can legally have a propane fueling station at home if you have a residential propane tank, etc.
 
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Easy. At least in the US, a vast majority of houses have natural gas ran to them. It would be a matter of upgrading your regulator and meter and upping the pipe diameter in the house to feed not just your furnace, stove and water heater but also a filling station. That would almost make more sense to have rather than electric...

the home stations work on low gas pressure, no need to up to pipe diameter
but because of this it does take several hours to fill the tank though...
(the public fueling stations use high pressure, there you can fill within minutes)
 
Banned from most residences in the US due to large, block-wiping natural gas explosions caused by home fueling stations the last time we tried CNG en masse in the 1970s. CNG refueling stations are now mostly restricted to commercial and fleet installs - no home install.

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Ford did offer the CVPIs in CNG but they were more than disappointing - they lost a lot of power and when the fuel ran below about half a tank the car lost even more power; I drove several surplussed ones while looking for the CVPI I eventually bought (non-CNG). Honda offered a CNG Civic for municipal fleets that has had a tepid reception at best.

- - - Updated - - -



Yeah, we've been there before. The result (in the US anyway) is exploding houses due to the usual conduct of homeowners. That's why it's banned now.

Most of the "home" type alternate natural gas type vehicle fueling in the US these days is LPG/propane. You can legally have a propane fueling station at home if you have a residential propane tank, etc.

How would propane be any safer? Propane has 1.5x the BTU content per cubic foot. If anything, it would be worse...
 
How would propane be any safer? Propane has 1.5x the BTU content per cubic foot. If anything, it would be worse...

Not every idiot has a propane 'outlet' in their house.

Aside from the "reduced numbers of potential idiots using it" advantage, there's also the fact that most common propane connections are more idiot proof than residential natural gas fittings. Also, CNG is stored at higher pressures - ~3000 to 3500psi if memory serves - and LPG is stored at 300-350psi. Just a bit different if you have a leak and it's a lot easier on the hardware.

A 3500psi CNG home compressor leak is going to be quite a bit of a problem. Also, regarding propane charging stations - you can have them on your property, but they must be outside. Which is fine because most propane sources like storage tanks are outside. Not so much with natural gas in the home.
 
pressure on the lines arriving in our homes is 25milibar (or 0.36psi)
 
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pressure on the lines arriving in our homes is 25milibar (or 0.36psi)

Which then would go into a compressor of some kind and possibly into a storage tank, and then you're looking at that 3000-3500psi at the compressor and down the line from there. The American experience with that and homeowners has not been good.
 
I don't think the lack of infrastructure in the US is relevant in this particular case. The op is in Belgium.
 
I don't think the lack of infrastructure in the US is relevant in this particular case. The op is in Belgium.

Wasn't responding to him but mostly to 93Flareside specifically - had specifically ignored the topic until 93's post about CNG in the USA, to which I generally confined myself. Nothing I posted is directed to or should be applied to the OP's question; remember, I don't generally comment on Euro 'what car?' posts.
 
And I only commented because reasons. :dunno:
 
The op in question likes to know about the history of things, foreign and domestic, so a big thanks to all repliers :)

I had hoped to get some German, Dutch or Swedish members to give me some feedback about reliability and consumption.

I have made some calculations and the break even point is already achieved after less than 3 years. The smaller trunk and the small cng tank are the main reasons why I'm also looking at a low milage second hand petrol Golf 7. Diesels are taxed so high at the moment even with 30.000 km/year the petrol car will be cheaper next year.
 
Banned from most residences in the US due to large, block-wiping natural gas explosions caused by home fueling stations the last time we tried CNG en masse in the 1970s. CNG refueling stations are now mostly restricted to commercial and fleet installs - no home install.

Yeah, we've been there before. The result (in the US anyway) is exploding houses due to the usual conduct of homeowners. That's why it's banned now.

I'm hardly surprised, at least that's significantly less likely with home electric car chargers (although I still expect it to happen due to poor installation or owner tinkering).

Still interested in the energy density compared to liquid fuels, still too lazy to look it up. :p
 
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