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.
Whoops - I meant combine this technology with electric plug-in hybrid technology for fleets! See previous post.
Newt Gingrich is promoting a petition, “Drill here, Drill Now, Pay Less”. I think we have more off-shore natural gas than we can use my lifetime, my kids lifetime, and my grandkids lifetime and all we have to do sink the wells and get it. If the scientists that theorize that the reason ships and airplanes sink in the Bermuda Triangle is because of gas bubbles released from the ocean floor causing a lack of buoyancy than there is an abundant supply that needs to be tapped. But lets not stop there but lets tap the whole Atlantic and Pacific coast. Lets stop OPEC before we leave ourselves open to be blackmailed by a bunch of terrorist creeps. If we can get enough petitions to Congress, hopefully we can change their bull-headed stance and allow the drilling to proceed.
To suddenly shift to natural gas vehicles isn’t realistic. There isn’t enough natural gas available. But we can start phasing in and as one comment writer stated we may blend into using hydrogen.
Australia has huge supplies of Natural Gas which it sells to China at a lower price tham it pays OPEC for petroleum. You cannot buy a natural gas car in Australia,or even a 100mpg Toyota or Volkswagen.Secondand Japanese cars are allowed as long as they are on the Government approved list and were built before 1988. Although there is said to be no collusion between government,car makers and fuel companies you are free to buy the car you want as long as it meets government rules -which don’t favour the buyer especially if you are trying to use less fuel. All substances used for fuel are subject to a 38cents a litre tax plus other taxes if you pay anybody for them.
I think we need to let the oil controling countrys know that we CAN excercise A choice. Making a MONOPOLY going away starts with one choice. ANY choice we make away from oil puts the speculators in a pinch. Maybe not the greatest pinch but again it is a step in the right direction and MUCH better than just buying a hybrid. I want to tell the Sheiks to kiss my A##.
This is such a great vehicle. True there are some accessibility issues with owning a NGV, but for homeowners that have natural gas to their house there is a rather large convienance factor. Secondly for every NGV purchased there is less oil required by us. As the numbers have shown we are just slightly a net importer of natural gas unlike oil. Therefor this has a much more possitive effect on our economy in that the money spent of fuel to operate a NGV would stay within the US economy and not go to some middle eastern governmen that funds terrorism. Also the markup price of the Civix GX is not nearly as bad as the markup on Hybrid’s such as the Prius, lessening the time it will take to make the car financially worth while. I think we shoould give Honda a huge thank you and even larger tax credit for building a car that has so many positive aspects!!!
I drive an ‘08 Civic GX and love it! In real life, I drive 3000-4000 miles a month. I am averaging in the low 40’s (miles per gas gallon equivalent). That includes running my a/c and driving up and down UTAH’s highways at a rate of 70+ mph. The worst fuel economy I’ve yet to experience was in the mid 30’s. At $.638/gge, I’m not complaining! At 75 mph the engine is running a hair below 2500rpm. At 80 mph a hair above 2500 rpm. Bravo,HONDA! Bravo!!
Things have changed since the studies cited–mostly in the last 3 years. With the advent of new technologies and a higher price environment, the industry is able to drill and produce in and from shales economically–making U.S. reserves much, much larger than those estimates. Just look at U.S. natural gas companies’ stocks.
I have a few questions regarding natural gas vehicles…
How does the power of the natural gas Honda compare to that of the gasoline burning version?
I own a 2000 Lexus RX300. If I’m able to convert this vehicle to NG, will my towing capacity change?
Where can I get a conversion kit?
Could a Prius or similar hybrid be converted to natural gas?
As others have pointed out, the supply of natural gas goes well beyond the 11.5 years calculated by the author. US proved reserves have increased every year since 1998. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the US has an estimated 1,190.62 Tcf of recoverable natural gas — enough to supply US energy needs well into the future.
Jack:
I’d love to see a citation (link) for that number. At current consumptions rates (21.6 Tcf / year), that gives us 55 years of natural gas left, assuming there is no major increase usage.
I could be wrong about the total estimated reserves, but we’re still just arguing about timeframe here. If natural gas is going to run out at some point, it doesn’t really matter how long we’ve got, just whether or not it’s useful as a bridge technology.
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/ng/ng_enr_sum_dcu_NUS_a.htm