Official Grand Opening for New Westport Facility
Westport Innovations, the supplier of Ford’s bi-fuel compressed-natural-gas program, recently announced that its new integration facility, right across the street from Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant outside Louisville, is now officially open. The new building is equipped to install Westport's Wing Power System (a CNG bi-fuel setup) on F-250 and F-350 6.2-liter V-8 gasoline models.
We recently test-drove a 2011 CNG Super Duty F-250 SuperCab 4x4 with the Westport Wing, and we were quite impressed with the range and the invisibility of the system. Westport says it can take a specially ordered Super Duty off the line, drive it across the street to be outfitted, and then bring it right back to be shipped out with the other Kentucky-built Ford Super Dutys.
Since Westport LD is a Ford Qualified Vehicle Modifier, the converted Ford vehicle is fully warranted, with the remaining Westport parts and components warranted by Westport to the same levels. Pricing depends on the size of the CNG tank, with the smaller tank 18.4 gallon gas equivalent tank costing $9,750 and the 24 gallon gas equivalent at $10,950.
Westport says it could produce as many as 20,000 units per year when running at full capacity, and the company expects to be ready to install the bi-fuel setup on chassis cab F-450 and F-550 models in the near future.
A spokesman for Westport LD suggested that as long as the infrastructure continues to grow for this alternative fuel, the fleet and consumer segment could grow to 10 to 20 percent of the entire truck market, and with vehicles like the F-150 and small and large vans coming online as well, that number could grow even larger.
Comments
That facility looks cleaner than my kitchen. The floors have more shine than my truck!
Nice first comment. Now waiting for the following:
"GM is falling behind they don't have anything to compare"
"Dodge reliability is crap"
"Toyota invented CNG!"
Exactly Steve... same old B.S. from the same old trolls!
Still tough to justify the price!
I want to know what it is they coat their floors with. That stuff looks bulletproof. I've done the epoxy coating in my shop twice and it looks awful within 2 years no matter how much prep effort was put into it. It's good to see a new facility creating American jobs for America's truck.
it is going to be interesting to see if this concept will take a hold and sell in trucks
That is a steep price for the conversion. I wonder if their is a tax credit available that makes it more affordable? I got to believe their is. My experience with CNG vehicles shows one can go a lot longer between oil changes due to the exceptionally clean burning fuel. Oil stays clean a long time.
@Steve G-Exactly. Just want to commend them on such a nice facility. So clean!!
@BlueOval & Ford840, If you want clean look at this. Ram's pentastar factory has much cleaner and bigger floors!
http://www.pentastars.com/photos/engine-tests.jpg
from http://www.pentastars.com/engines/production.php a division of allpar.com
@ Steve G,
You are a typical Toyota owner..totally ignorant/uneducated about facts and truth !!!
TOYOTA DID NOT INVENT NATURAL GAS !!!!!!!
NATURAL GAS IS.......AH....NATURAL !! ....TOYOTA DID NOT INVENT IT !!!!!! LOL !! TYPICAL 'YOTA OWNER !!! LOL !!!
Furthermore,Dodge had Natural Gas vehicles roaming around in the 1970's !!!! Again a push in late 1980's....They had Factory Natural gas vehicles from the late 1980's until the early 2000's !!! Even had Propane powered vehicles as well in the 1980's.Yes,cars,vans,trucks running on these fuels from the 1970's- early 2000's !
You are too funny....Toyota invented Natural gas,bet you believe Al Gore invented the internet ..right ?
Yep,my Dodge already outlasted my Toyota , I know Toyota owners dont understand what reliability is,they have it backwards !! My Dodge was never in the shop for repairs,my Toyota was in 4-5 times in less than 2 years of ownership !!
Again,too funny you said Toyota invented Natural Gas..whats next..Toyota invented the Sun ..or was it the Moon ..Yeah Moon...Nice try Moonbeam !!
Umm… I think Steve G was using sarcasm
Awesome, more american jobs. I hope westport is union. When folks make more money they spend more money helping the U.S. economy.
Long term this would be good for utility companies, service companies, and businesses. The higher cost would make more sense if the truck is used for a long period of time and has a lot of use. For the average consummer there would not be a savings. For businesses this could be a significant savings. I hope Westport is very successful and that more jobs are created.
Great idea natural gas for trucks. Problem is nowhere to fill the thing up for the average Joe. Check out your state and let me know how many filling places you have. In other words screw the oil company lets go natural gas.
WOW! pacific north west. You must drink lead paint for breakfast. You really didn't get the joke????? Calm down and read it again.
Steve you realize oil companies produce natural gas right?
dotrat75 was spot on.
I was raised a Chevy guy, switched to Dodge when GM cancelled the Camaro, bought the wife a Ford Edge. Currently drive a RAM. Go Big 3!
Man, just wanted to give ford850 some props for a great post and the trolls still come out swinging!
Mike Levine left because of you guys, not for a better job. What could be better than doing an HD shootout every year?
@justin- ahem, they like to be called "energy companies" now.
@Blueovalempire- remember- the shine on that floor is brand new. It won't always look that way.
I have noticed in Australia, this "alternative energy' thing has exploded. Went to a local service station and noticed pumps for Petrol(three grades), LPG(mixed Propane and Butane), Diesel and FlexFuel(85% Erhanol, 15% petrol)
WE have lots of natural gas. Let's start using it.
just build diesel half tone,,,this is nothing new natural gas...do you thing the gas price be low ,,more vehicle the price go up..and the extra cost to get this system dont justify to get one..
I still think you should convert your oil central heaters into natural gas and use the oil for diesel.
How much does a central heater cost in comparison to the natural conversion?
@Big Al from Oz - I don't know what the percentage is for people heating with stove oil. There are still areas that run on diesel generators. Natural gas is cheeper than oil for home heating.
@Lou
I was reading an article that stated that the heating oil cut from every barrel of oil NA uses is 25%. So a quarter of your oil is used to heat homes etc. I think most of this oil is refined in Canada (Halifax?). SE Canada and NE of the States uses most of this heating oil.
It would be far cheaper and efficient to pipe this gas to homes for heating etc. Diesel contains far more BTUs than CNG by volume. So any motor vehicle would benefit from denser fuels as a cheaper option.
Is heating oil still #2 fuel oil? If so thats a lot cheaper to produce than ulsd I would guess. Add to that, more gasoline is available per barrel than ulsd, and that may be your answer.
@Tom
I don't know the EPA regulations on oil heaters. If it is dirtier than diesel then it would really benefit NA to use natural gas only as heating and refine the crude into diesel for vehicles.
@Tom - from wikipedia under HEATING OIL
Heating oil accounts for about 25% of the yield of a barrel of crude oil, the second largest "cut" after gasoline (petrol). Options on futures, calendar spread options contracts, crack spread options contracts, and average price options contracts give market participants even greater flexibility in managing price risk.
More jobs created.
Thanks Obama!
justin: this just in, petro companies DO NOT produce nat gas, they DISCOVER IT and then develop ways to bring it to the surface, and then to market, they do however produce propane, which is a by-product of refining crud oil into various fuels, ok?
@ Tom - I do believe that heating oil is a "lighter" diesel. My dad used to refer to "stove oil" as "winter" diesel.
@big all from oz - I know that in many remote northern communities everything seems to run on diesel/heating oil. I would suspect that fact is because it is easier and cheeper to ship in bulk.
@Big Al from Oz --Majority of the newer homes in the US have natural gas furnices. Natural gas is cheaper and so are the natural gas furnaces. One reason people still heat with heating oil is because most rural areas do not have access to a natural gas line. Believe me that most people on heating oil would love to have access to a natural gas line. I lived in the country in Northern Kentucky for over 14 years and did not have access to a natural gas line. I built a new house at the time and had a choice of a heating oil, propane ( more costly), and electricity. I chose electricity with a ground water heat pump because I had a 140 ft well with an underground aquifer that was near the Ohio River but was as large as the Ohio. If it would not have been for the aquifer I would probably have chose an air to air heat pump. Heat pumps work well until the temperature gets 30 degrees or below and then the auxillry heat strips kick in and then you are using straight electricity. Air conditioning was great because heat has little effect on the water temperature going into the heat pump. I had a 50% savings on air conditioning and a 30% to 40% savings on heat versus straight electricity. The initial cost of a heat pump is high but over 10 years it becomes cost effective. Again most people who have heating oil would rather have natural gas but all bets are off if you are not near a gas line. I currently live in a subdivision and I have natural gas heat.
What is interesting Al is that the Chevy dealership that I bought my S-10 new at heated their entire dealership (showroom, service area, and offices) with an oil burner. They never bought heating oil they just used the old motor oil from oil changes. It was cheaper for them to heat with it than to pay for the costs to haul it away in an environmentally safe way. That dealership has since moved to a new larger facility but a JJ Byrite used car sales and service has moved into their old facility and is using that old oil burner with their old motor oil.
@Jeff S
Maybe we need more global warming to reduce your heating costs.
@Big Al from Oz --Sorry big Al that I am not doing my part toward global warming. I gave up my last V-8 powered vehicle 10 years ago and I take the bus to work. Any reasonably priced used Hummers out there?
@Big Al from Oz, @Jeff S - I know of businesses like truck shops that run on used oil too. A large number of saw mills and pulp mills are using wood waste as an aditional heat source and have gone to cogeneration plants. One of the local mills was generating so much extra heat that they were selling it to our city to heat the municipal offices and the swimming pool. A win win for all.
I think that if we do cause the ice caps to melt via global warming, we will be fighting over who's boat is better instead of trucks ;)
I can see it now............ Ram Rules the Reefs.
Big Al from OZ. I think heating in NT would not be as critical it would be in the Northern Hemisphere. Agree Natural gas is a winner although people can get away with reverse cyle airconditioner or "Heat Pumps" outside Australia.
Went to Cairns in far North Queensland in their "winter", it was 80F through the day and they had a "winter woolies sale" in the shops LOL.
Cairns is very similar to Hawaii as far as climate goes.
@Robert Ryan
We actually had a cold day last week, because we are in the depths of winter it didn't go above 27 degrees celsius all day. In the morning I had to put a shirt on.
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