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.
I agree with the natural gas hybrid. I think that we are not tapping into the hybrids like we should be. We sure are coming a long way in a short period of time though.
Mastercraft Exteriors
Unfortunately, the natural gas market is already in serious short supply. Anyone who’s home heating is provided by natural gas in the northeast, has felt the serious price fluctuations in the winter. This is due to lack of supply during prolonged increased demand.
If Natural Gas cars were to become a serious market competitor, we would have to produce synthetic natural gas from another source (petroleum, coal, or biomass).
You mention Honda and others, where are the others.
I am trying to find NGV’s. Thats plural, or you selling Honda’s??
Wow this is amazingly good news. I wish I had $24,000. But I guess I will in about 5 years and NG cars will be freely available by then. In the mean time I have started building a hydrogen system for my Honda odyssey and I only had to spend less than $100. But I haven’t finished making it yet, so I don’t know what mileage it will give me. If I’m lucky I’ll double my mileage, and if I’m unlucky, I’ll get 30%. Check it out on http://www.water4gas-scam.com and if you want to build it too, there is a free youtube video on the site
Natural gas is far less explosive than gasoline (the most dangerous fuel available), and hydrogen is even less explosive than that. CNG has been an auto fuel for over 20 years, and the statistics are consistent.
I dare you to try and find a story about a natural gas vehicle exploding from its fuel content. By contrast, how many car-beques have you seen on the highway?
When you check out the facts, how can you in good conscience put your family in a vehicle that’s carrying 10 gallons of cancer-causing, explosive liquid in an oversized milk carton?
As one of the Utah Honda NGV driver’s, I have a 2002, I have to say it’s nice to go 150 miles on less than 3.00. I have a filling station two blocks from where I work and another a couple miles away. I’m sure this won’t last forever, but the state has kept a good grip on prices so far.
Not only does the car pollute less I can also ride solo in the carpool lane and park at the downtown meters for free.
Because the car burns so clean oil changes are scheduled at 10,000 miles.
A hybrid would be nice but I’ve heard in real world driving the 08′ is getting in the 40 mpg range. In anycase, there are already Gasoline/CNG cars, so why not add a plugin hybrid capability and give the people a choice of fuels? CNG/Electric at home depending on price and Gasoline or someday a Hydrogen/CNG blend for the longer trips? It’s a choice of fuels like the Volt is supposed to deliver. The technology is here, the only thing holding it back is cost and demand.
@Dave: Thanks for the first-person report!
I have submitted your article to http://www.autocar-live.com which is a social site where users can submit car/auto articles and vote for already submitted articles.
I drive a 2000 Bi-fuel (CNG & CNG) Ford Contour and have loved it. It’s amazing that more people haven’t heard of CNG (and that many of the automakers got out of the business about 5 years ago.) In Utah, I got back 50% of the conversion cost of my car, drove for $0.63 per GGE (gasoline gallon equivalent), drove solo in the carpool lane, and parked for free at downtown meters. I’ve since moved to Washington and we’re going to install a pump to refuel at home. I love CNG and am not going back. Learn more about CNG at http://www.devinhowe.com
Great article. The US has only 3% of the world reserves http://www.naturalgas.org/overview/resources.asp
The US can buy compressed or liquid natural gas when that runs out. Like Clayton says it may provide a bridge between gasoline/diesel and hydrogen. Why can’t we start with fleets (like school buses, postal trucks, city buses etc.). Combine this with plug-in hydrogen technology it may be very feasible and profitable!