Natural gas vehicles (NGVs, CNG)

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The Auto Channel

Amidst charges that embattled American Honda is systematically suppressing its compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle program, the company has suddenly fueled that impression by throwing into bankruptcy its wholly-owned CNG refueling company, Fuelmaker....

And it's not pretty...

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That's not going to make T. Boone Pickens very happy.

[Robert.Boston]

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

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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.

[Doug_G]

I heard a short talk about this car last night.

2011 Honda Civic GX Overview - Official Site

Apparently the idea is you have a small compressor in your garage that compresses natural gas from your home heating hookup and pumps it into the car. The range is pretty good.

[TEG]

It has been around for a while.
It gets mentioned on the forum occasionally. For instance, here are a couple:

CNG REEVs?
Hydrogen vs. Battery

[Tommy]

Apparently the idea is you have a small compressor in your garage that compresses natural gas from your home heating hookup and pumps it into the car. The range is pretty good.

According to the site below, the "small compressor" uses 800 watts of eletricity to compress gas for 50 miles of travel.

Knowledge Base - Fox Service Company

[Doug_G]

According to the site below, the "small compressor" uses 800 watts of eletricity to compress gas for 50 miles of travel. [/url]

For four hours... which makes it 3.2 kWh, or 64 Wh/mile. That's about 20% of an EV right there.

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For four hours... which makes it 3.2 kWh, or 64 Wh/mile. That's about 20% of an EV right there.

Well that huge news to me. 2nd only to range anxiety is charge time on people's list of why not to get an EV. So a NG car has little philling infrastructure and a long "charge" time? Nice to have this bit of info when someone says, "Why an EV? Why not a NG car?"