Does it still make sense to convert a car to methane?

The new methane cars they can no longer be ordered. In fact, no manufacturer currently has models with this fuel in its price list, following the abandonment by the Volkswagen Group and Fiat, the two main companies that in recent years had continued to commit themselves in development.

But has the story of compressed natural gas (CNG) really reached the end credits (at least on cars)? There are those who believe that no. Ecomotive Solutions, a Piedmontese company from Serralunga di Crea (AL), has developed and produced a fleet of Panda Hybrid converted to operation at methane to highlight its efficiency.

Let’s find out how the project is made, presented in Rome on the occasion of the Conference “Biomethane for sustainable mobility: the green evolution of the internal combustion engine”, organized by Federmetano, and what future applications could have.

Proven mechanics

To go into more “technical” details of these cars, let’s start immediately with the most interesting features. The starting point used by the Piedmontese company was that of the normal Panda Hybrid, equipped with the 1.0 mild hybrid petrol aspirated by 70 CV.

The engine, in order to run on gaseous fuel, has been modified with the addition of dedicated injectors and a plenum, controlled by means of a additional control unit manageable from inside the passenger compartment via a “classic” digital switch, which allows – as has been done for years on bi-fuel cars – to switch from one fuel to the other.

Ecomotive Solutions

Ecomotive Solutions

The digital switch in the cockpit

Methane cylinders with a total capacity of 28 liters – refillable via a dedicated nozzle positioned near the petrol one – finally, they were housed in the luggage compartment which, looking at the car in person, has lost very few litres of its capacity.

According to the first numbers released by the company, with a full tank of CNG each Panda Hybrid is able to travel at least 300 kmwith scheduled maintenance intervals every 30,000 km.

Ecomotive Solutions

The methane cylinders placed in the luggage compartment

An interesting fuel

Methane is a fuel that in the Over the last 20 years it has been appreciated by many European and Italian motorists, thanks to the low cost at the pump which allowed (and to a certain extent still allows today) to travel with costs far lower than those for petrol and diesel.

Despite the crisis of this fuel as regards cars, the reasons for which we have analysed in a dedicated in-depth study in the summer of 2024, is still widely used in the sectorroad haulagewhere it represents a valid alternative to diesel and electric. And it is precisely by exploiting the experience gained in the Heavy Vehicle sector, that Ecomotive Solutions developed the entire fleet of 11 methane-powered Panda Hybrids.

Ecomotive Solutions

The methane-powered Fiat Panda Hybrid by Ecomotive Solutions

To field test this technology, each one will be supplied to some associated companies. Federmetano which will travel the Italian roads in the next few months to carry out real tests of efficiency and consumption.