The Cleanest Cars on Earth?: Honda Civic GX and Other Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs)
Clean Burning Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs) are hot commodities in some parts of the country, where fuel can sell for as low as $0.63 per gallon.
Unlike the world’s most fuel efficient car (VW’s 285 MPG bullet), the Honda Civic GX looks like a standard passenger vehicle. What makes it special is what you don’t see: tailpipe emissions that are often cleaner than ambient air.
The Civic GX is powered by compressed natural gas—methane—the simplest and cleanest-burning hydrocarbon available. With an economical 113-hp, 1.8-Liter engine, the EPA has called the Civic the “world’s cleanest internal-combustion vehicle” with 90% cleaner emissions than the average gasoline-powered car on the road in 2004.
And get this: in Utah, natural gas can be purchased for $0.63 per gallon.
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At $24,590, buying a new Civic GX won’t exactly break your bank account, especially since up to $7,000 will come back to you in the form of state and federal tax credits. But don’t expect to find one easily. The car is only sold in two states, New York and California, and Honda can’t build them fast enough. One dealership said they have over 80 people waiting to buy.
Rubbish. Hydrogen is far cleaner because it has *zero* harmful emissions, only water vapor.
What about the danger of natural gas? Isn’t it extremely explosive? How does that work out?
Joe: Hydrogen is only clean if produced via clean power. Right now, it’s not so clean. Same problem here: natural gas is a fossil fuel, but can also be produced by breakdown of plant material. So it just depends where you get it.
Wayne: Most of the sources say that because natural gas doesn’t pool as a liquid, but instead immediately evaporates, that it’s less likely to ignite.
The NGVA says:
“The fuel storage cylinders used in NGVs are much stronger than gasoline fuel tanks. The design of NGV cylinders are subjected to a number of federally required ” severe abuse” tests, such as heat and pressure extremes, gunfire, collisions and fires.”
http://www.naturalgas.org/business/analysis.asp
Estimates of Available Natural Gas supplies in the United States range from 1,127 - 1,451 Trillion Cubic Feet of Natural Gas.
Just like any problem we need to attack fuel usage from many angles. The government should throw down the hammer and make tighter restrictions on the type of cars you are allowed to drive. You can still buy any car you want but you will just have to pay extra tax to buy a large car when you don’t need to be driving one. All of these 20mpg cars are just a total waste. We could reduce usage by 50% right off the bat by selling cars that get 40mpg.
The use of the term “explosion” seems to be a poor choice here:
“Drawbacks to the Civic GX and other Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles
Earlier this week I was clued-in to the explosion of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles in Southern Utah…”
I thought they were literally exploding until I clicked the link.
Know the difference between ‘proven reserves’ and ‘proved reserves’. Proved reserves have increased yearly within the US. As stated by Strawgate, ‘Estimates of Available Natural Gas supplies in the United States range from 1,127 - 1,451 Trillion Cubic Feet of Natural Gas.’
Natural gas will come a time it will be expensive and the criss will be the same as oil now. Both hydrogen and methane are highly explosive. Hydrogen is more environmental friendly though is explosive but we need that explosive part of it to make our car run. On my guess compress air, water and electricity can work the magic for our transport.
@2 Steve: Point well taken. I had a good laugh when I saw that, and it has been changed to “explosion in popularity”. Thanks for the comment.
All car companies seem to be looking for a single option replacement to the long running fossil fuels vehicles we are all used to. With the available technologies many seem like good solutions for specific niches. As for the natural gas car why are they not looking at extending the functionality by making a natural gas hybrid. If the natural gas engine were used as the charging center for the electric vehicle its lower horsepower output would not be as much of an issue. Added driving range or smaller fuel storage tanks should also be a side result. Who is doing this type of vehicle?