Natural gas vehicles (NGVs, CNG)

[dpeilow]

Next Volkswagen Golf should come with CNG option for low CO2 emissions | Motor Nature: for green drivers

[jaanton]

Also keep in mind that the home CNG compressors tend to be noisy.

And they use a bunch of electricity to run. So much that PG&E will give you E-9 TOU tariff rates to run the compressor to fuel your CNG vehicle. Makes them practically an EV.

[Robert.Boston]

Look what was driving ahead of me on my commute today:

[vfx]

Actually heard a commercial for a Honda Natural Gas Civic today on LA radio. It was all about taking advantage of the HOV lane till 2015.

[doug]

Look what was driving ahead of me on my commute today:

A U2 fan?

On several occasions I've seen these Honda CNG cars driving around (typically fleet vehicles either owned by the city or by PG&E). I'm surprised they aren't promoted more. They're available right now, and are another arrow in the quiver of bridge technologies while batteries get better and cheaper.

[TEG]

I wish someone (e.g., Honda) would do a CNG hybrid. Increasing MPG by having electric assist+regen, and the inherent low emissions of CNG would be a good combo, IMHO. (For those that have issues with cost and range of pure electrics...)

Also, natural gas prices have recently come way down due to the results of the horrid (for the environment) fracking campaign:
Natural Gas Cost Less | What Is Fracking
The Hidden Danger of the Gas Boom | The Price of Oil
maybe the "Pickens' Plan" still has some legs:
About The Plan | Pickens Plan

[dpeilow]

The thought crossed my mind to see how easy it would be to make the Volt/Ampera ICE run on LPG, which is readily available around the UK (so readily available that it amazes me that the cars are as rare as hens' teeth - maybe people like paying through the nose for petrol?).

[richkae]

I think CNG cars suck. I wrote about them on my blog: Compressed Natural Gas | High Speed Charging
Please feel free to reply and tell me why I am wrong.

[doug]

As far as a fuel for the "range extender" in a PHEV, the key features are quick fueling and the "readily available" part David mentions above. So if LPG is readily available then it's fine. But around here, I don't think CNG is readily available to the general public for quick fueling. So that makes CNG a poor fuel for a range extender. Same for hydrogen. You might as well just use gasoline.

[richkae]

As far as a fuel for the "range extender" in a PHEV, the key features are quick fueling and the "readily available" part David mentions above. So if LPG is readily available then it's fine. But around here, I don't think CNG is readily available to the general public for quick fueling. So that makes CNG a poor fuel for a range extender. Same for hydrogen. You might as well just use gasoline.

I think that CNG fueling stations are orders of magnitude more expensive than quick charging stations. So it would be far cheaper to build the infrastructure for EVs than for CNG cars.