New age for old tech? Honda Civic Natural Gas tops Ford Focus Electric as 'Green Car

[zack]

New age for old tech? Honda Civic Natural Gas tops Ford Focus Electric as 'Green Car of the Year' | MLive.com

Hopefully the Model S next year...

[Robert.Boston]

A great fleet car, where the lack of natural gas fueling infrastructure won't be a problem.

Depending on criteria, Model S might not be the "Green Car of the Year." Some BEV econobox could be greener; something like the Coda could actually surpass Model S in CO2 saved. Model S should win MT CotY, though; it's not just the best green car, it'll be the best car of 2012.

[richkae]

I wrote up an analysis of cng cars on my blog.
They are inferior to EVs.
If you have a fleet and need to build infrastructure you are much better off building EV infrastructure.

Compressed Natural Gas | High Speed Charging
Read and let me know if you disagree.

[Robert.Boston]

I wrote up an analysis of cng cars on my blog.
They are inferior to EVs.
If you have a fleet and need to build infrastructure you are much better off building EV infrastructure.

Compressed Natural Gas | High Speed Charging
Read and let me know if you disagree.

You've convinced me. (I was surprised to learn, though, that there's a public CNG station less than a mile from my house.) Makes me wonder why a large chunk of the buses in Boston use CNG. Hopefully they shift over to EV as battery tech matures.

[VolkerP]

rich,

Thank you for your in-depth analysis. Again a big surprise that EVs beat any other propulsion with their efficiency!

Trying to help improve it:

You can buy a home CNG filling unit that will cost you about $6000 installed. It can refill your car in about 16 hours. But it uses 800watts to do that, so in 16 hours it would consume 12.8kW of electricity.

make that 12.8 kWh.

If you refill exclusively at home, you will spend $932 per year on fuel ( $857 on the CNG and $75 on the electricity to run the compressor! ).

Would be easier to understand if you state the miles per year and your home tariff for electricity and natural gas.

The Leaf is rated at 34kW per 100 miles, so $448 per year in electricity.

make that 34 kWh.

[richkae]

You've convinced me. (I was surprised to learn, though, that there's a public CNG station less than a mile from my house.) Makes me wonder why a large chunk of the buses in Boston use CNG. Hopefully they shift over to EV as battery tech matures.

In terms of cost per mile and emissions CNG vehicles are superior to gasoline vehicles and the technology has existed for a long time before EVs became viable.
They were a reasonable step before EVs became viable, but any new investment in them is investing in an inferior system.

[richkae]

Thanks Volker! Edits applied.

[TEG]

I wrote up an analysis of cng cars on my blog.
They are inferior to EVs.
If you have a fleet and need to build infrastructure you are much better off building EV infrastructure.
Compressed Natural Gas | High Speed Charging
Read and let me know if you disagree.

Yeah, I recall previous analysis concluded the same thing. (Electricity needed to compress negates some of the benefit.)
By the way, although dated, it might be worth a little visit to this old thread:
CNG REEVs?
I still don't understand why we don't see diesel or CNG hybrids... Basically only gas.
Adding a hybrid drivetrain to a CNG car should increase its' range and efficiency just like it does for gasoline vehicles.

[VolkerP]

I still don't understand why we don't see diesel or CNG hybrids... Basically only gas.
Adding a hybrid drivetrain to a CNG car should increase its' range and efficiency just like it does for gasoline vehicles.

Perhaps it is too much to ask people go hybrid and then even use an alternative to conventional gasoline. Or car manufacturers think so.

[vfx]

Wow I need to bullet point that write-up. Well done. NG is NG.

The only thing is...

That the picture of the blue Roadster tail end is crooked in the frame. It's driving me crazy!