Ford has announced the improvement of the C-Max natural gas storage capacity up to 107 liters (about 18kg of Compressed Natural Gas), which allows the car run for up to 300 km (200 miles) on a single tank. If you add the 55 liters of the regular gasoline deposit, the range comes up to 720 km (420 miles).

The C-Max is a compact minivan built on the Focus platform. The CNG version is based on the 2.0l Duratec gasoline engine, good for 145 HP in gasoline mode and 126 when running on gas. For such a large vehicle, the tailpape emissions are quite good: 158 CO2 g/km.

Automakers selling cars in Germany have a long-lasting relationship with Erdgas, the biggest Natural Gas company in Germany and most of the makes have CNG models available. There are a few public refuelling stations around the country which allow long trips. These cars are all bi-fuel, since they can still run with unleaded.

Related:

• GM Europe to unveil CO2 reduction strategy at the Frankurt Motor Show
• Driving around Europe with Natural Gas: VW Touran, Fiat Panda and more

[Source: Ford]

Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, is currently widely used in some cities (such as Paris or Barcelona) to power public buses. Natural gas burns very clean and, although it still pollutes with CO2, it avoids the most of the rest of nasty by-products that come out of the tailpipe.

ERDGAS, the biggest natural gas company in Germany, is promoting intensively the use of Compressed Natural Gas with passenger vehicles, even offering home fueling stations linked to the normal gas distribution network. The bread&butter German brands, such as Volkswagen and Opel have a couple of models able to run with CNG at relatively low prices. There are fueling stations (sparse) around Germany, and even Erdgas offers a route planner that takes in consideration that CNG vehicles need to be refueled more times.

Availability is not that easy outside Germany and every country is different. In France, the national gas company, Gaz de France, allows consumers to install compressors to fill up the cars, but they take up to 9 hours. Carrefour announced some gas pump at their gas stations and PSA cars can be ordered with CNG options.

If you want to check a couple more of models and some more information about running a CNG in Europe, follow me through the jump.