Honda’s Phill Goes Home in California
21 April 2005
As planned, (earlier post) Honda is beginning limited retail sales of its natural gas-powered Civic GX sedan paired with a new residential natural gas refueling appliance called Phill.
The Civic GX (earlier post) is the cleanest internal combustion vehicle ever certified by the EPA and, with the introduction of home refueling, has the lowest fuel cost per mile of any new vehicle.
The Phill appliance can be mounted to a garage wall either indoors or outdoors and refuels a natural gas-powered vehicle overnight directly from a homeowner’s existing natural gas supply line. Phill is designed to offer ease of operation with simple “start” and “stop” buttons and will automatically turn itself off when the tank is full.
Manufactured and marketed by FuelMaker Corporation, Phill will be available for lease through 17 authorized Honda Civic GX California dealers in San Diego, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Sacramento and San Francisco.
Civic GX buyers can lease Phill through Honda dealers for approximately $34 to $79 per month (plus installation) depending on regional incentive programs.
(A tip of the hat to Car Buyer’s Notebook.)
The GX seems pretty cool, and filling up at your house is a huge bonus. Now if only Honda would really push it.
Posted by: Mikhail Capone | 21 April 2005 at 02:01 PM
One of the things that I look forward to in the next generation of cars is never having to go to the gas station. I want to plug into ng or 240 at the house and never have to deal with another bovine faced psychology major behind the gas countre again.
Posted by: count0 | 21 April 2005 at 03:28 PM
Methinks this would work out much nicer if the GX were a flexfuel that could run on CNG or Gas (as many LNG flexfuels and conversions in Europe can) since you'd be able to use the car for vacations as well as just commuting and local shopping. BMW's 745h runs on either gasoline or H2, and it can even run all its electronics on H2 alone so you don't have to idle using gas for your stereo, climate controls, etc.
Posted by: otis wildflower | 16 May 2006 at 07:38 AM