Natural Gas Vehicles Get No Respect

John Gartner — June 26, 2009
Natural gas is the Rodney Dangerfield of transportation fuels. It’s cheap. It’s clean. But consumers don’t have much of a chance to use it it because there’s only model of natural gas car for sale.
Billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens has been beating the drum the loudest lately about the merits of natural gas as a clean(er) fuel that can also make the U.S. more energy independent. His argument was bolstered this week by the discovery that the U.S. may have 35 percent more natural gas underground than previously estimated.
Natural gas is relatively inexpensive, as the national average price was about 20 percent less than gasoline in April, according to the DOE.
While natural gas is a carbon emitting fossil fuel, it is much cleaner than petroleum-based fuels — even hybrids. For six years running, the road-ready passenger vehicle rated greenest has been the Honda Civic GX, a car that runs on natural gas. The Civic GX carries a $10,000 premium, but a federal tax incentive of $4,000 nearly cuts the gap in half. While there are 120,000 natural gas-powered vehicles in the U.S., nearly all are trucks, buses and fleet vehicles.
One of the reasons more automakers haven’t jumped on the bandwagon is the scarcity of refueling stations. California is the only state with more than 100 natural gas refueling stations, and only 1,100 nationwide. Of course if they built the cars, they will come. This may change soon as companies may look to take advantage of federal incentives for building alternative fuel stations.
However, the national excise tax credit that goes to natural gas is due to expire at the end of the year, which would put a damper on enthusiasm for natural gas.
If at least one of the other big auto manufacturers doesn’t jump in and make one of its fleet CNG vehicles available to consumers, you might see a startup try to draft behind Mr. Pickens plan for natural gas vehicles. The technology is already proven; it’s just a matter of will.

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Tags: cars, gas, natural, pickens, plan

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Comment by Mike Johnston on July 1, 2009 at 9:08am: may be the x difference between factory equipment and 3rd party retrofit. In this Opel Karavan the tank seems to be located under the floor.

Comment by Ralph Kuethe on July 1, 2009 at 7:31am: I do not understand whey you must fill the trunk of a natural gas car with a gas tank. Is there a reason that a natural gas car cannot replace the gasolne tank?.

Comment by Mike Johnston on June 29, 2009 at 4:45am: Hi Mark,
Where did you see that? I checked on their site and on google and could not find anything offering info.

https://www.nwnatural.com/content_aboutus.asp?id=125

Comment by mark on June 29, 2009 at 4:11am: It seems that even NW Natural is having lots of trouble maintaining their CNG fleet and is phasing them out

Comment by Mike Johnston on June 28, 2009 at 7:03pm: There are a lot of competing technologies right now. The range of a CNG vehicle on a full tank is certainly comparable to an electric vehicle. With the current availability of fuel on a national basis both make good commuter vehicles as you suggest.

This is what makes CNG a perfect alternative fuel for heavy trucks which return to their home terminal every day or shuttle between a network of company terminals. In those situations the company can have on site refueling at their terminals without the need for a national CNG fueling infrastructure.

Remember when diesel cars first started coming to America? The same situation existed there. It was really hard to find diesel without going to a truckstop and then you had to have a nozzle adapter...

Comment by Mark Feagins on June 27, 2009 at 4:05pm: Mike

I investigated the Honda Civic GX; and I just can't make sense investing in a car with only 180 mile range; and one in which the entire trunk is occupied by the CNG tank. Once or twice a month I need to be able to drive 200 to 300 miles. The lack of CNG refueling infrastructure is simply not there for dedicated CNG cars..........and that is OK.

To most of us, transportation comprises driving to work and running errands......this equates to the national daily average of 42 miles.

I am promoting bi-fuel CNG/Gasoline cars whereby the CNG tank is only intended to satisfy a typical day's driving. This can be accomplished with a reduced sized tank ...... about the size of a scuba tank that does nt take up the entire trunk space and can be home fueled in about 3 hours while you sleep with 3 gal equivalent of CNG. This car would still have its' normal driving range of 300+ miles on gasoline--- so you will never get stranded for the lack of refueling stations. This strategy will allow most work commuters and soccer moms to burn CNG for 100% of their 42 daily miles. A traveling salesman who drives 100 miles per day will still reduce his consumption by 50%. Am I starting to make sense????

* This strategy does not require billions of taxpayer dollars to build out CNG refueling stations.
* GM, Ford, Volvo and Mercedes all build bi-fuel cars---but not in the United States
* The conversion cost and process could be massively reduced at about $1,500 per car
* Anybody with natural gas lines in their neighborhoods are immediate candidates

We will not have a permanent economic recovery as long as people are "saving" - to be able to pay their bills in fear of the day when oil goes back up ---- and higher. It's already happening. Inventories of oil and gasoline are overflowing and our refiners are cutting production to boost prices. Even when we conserve, we can't win. My strategy will get OPEC and Exxon, Chevron, Shell from out of our economy.