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.
Ten years ago General Motors built the Chevrolet Metro that averaged 52mpg. It wouldn’t take GM long to put these cars back into production. It would help save gas for now.
For the last 20 years it seems that an average car has not better milage nor better emission. They can go to the moon, I’m sure they can make better cars. It’s probably an economical/money issue.
Mr. Hiebert-
The Geo Metro is out of production because it cannot pass safety regs. There’s also the small matter that no one wanted them or bought them. If an ‘updated’ Geo Metro were to be put back into production, it wouold weigh 550-700 pounds more than before,due to safety regulations you voted for. The heavier the vehicle, the more fuel to move it. The Metro was a loser, and GM would lose again if they put it out.
Buy a Geo used, spend $4999 to rebuild the thing and you will be happy with a loser car that MIGHT get your 52 MPG.
How Much do these cars cost? can a disabled person afford one?
Electric cars is the solution.
We need to find a way to procedure cheap electricity.
I vote for Pedro!
Actually, electric everything is the solution because there is an infinite variety of ways to produce and distribute electricity. Once you make the switch, it no longer matters if its cheap or expensive, or clean or dirty; its having the “options” that counts. Obviously, there are clean, sustainable ways to produce electricity.
I chose a diesel vehicle for transportation not because it was cheap, or particularly clean, but because it gives me more options down the road, literally. There is petroleum diesel, biodiesel, vegetable oil,…etc
I live in Colorado. There are natural gas wells all over the state and more being developed and a mature system to transport it to homes and out of the state. To me Natural Gas is the obvious choice initially over hydrogen as there is no existing infrastructure for hydrogen yet.
Electric is interesting but there are some challenges there as well. One is you are converting from one energy e.g. coal, gas, etc to electricity in which there are losses then yet another conversion to mechanical energy. Battery’s are heavy and are not clean to produce, even a deal battery is heavy with is energy to lug around. As you consume fossil fuels to mechanical energy the weight consumes as you go.
Can a standard gasoline engine be converted to natural gas? If so what is involved in making this conversion and what does is cost?
There is a company out of Utah that has natural gas conversion kits imported from Argentina and Italy. The kit itself starts at $1500ish. A new tank runs $2000-$3000, or you can buy a used one for about a thousand or so (make sure it’s DOT approved, no expired ones either). And professional installation is $1500. So total is around 5K. The website is cngoutfitters.com. They are developing a network of installation shops around the nation, so you should see them popping up eventually.