Posted on 04/21/2005 7:25:16 PM PDT by ajolympian2004
Don't we get most of our natural gas from Canada? No thanks.
The car clearly wouldn't be my second car either.
Just dang! All the Libs are gonna jump onto that bandwagon, i guarantee it.
We can produce our own with some beer and chili!
If that is the case I'll take natural gas from Canada rather than oil from the Middle East anyday. That's a no brainer IMHO.
> If the vehicle runs out of natural gas on the road,
> it would have to be towed to the owners' home or one
> of the 100 California gas stations that now have
> natural gas refueling tanks.
So the owner hack on these will be a coupler for a
grill tank, and a chip mod for propane vs. NG, which
now puts the car within range of zillions of retail
stores with tank refill/exchange.
I'm pretty good...but even I, couldn't keep up with fuel production.
No SUVs?
Exchanging propane tanks would certainly be faster than waiting 8 hours to refill your NG tank.
There's a NG CRV that's been running around in fleet sales for a couple of years.
How about a retrofit gas burner that takes those propane tanks at every service station? 8 hours to fill up? That should be a requirement for truckers, not commuters...
Toyota is about to release it's first SUV hybrid. They are starting with their Highlander model. I've already heard good reviews about it from a couple of friends in the auto industry.
You'll probably see a Honda Pilot all natural gas powered model before long.
Kudos to Honda and Toyota...
I own a Toyota 4Runner because of their high quality and reliability. 150,000+ miles so far and it's still running like a dream. No transmission replacements at 60,000 miles like me previous mode of transportation from the Ford Motor Company.
> Exchanging propane tanks would certainly be faster
> than waiting 8 hours to refill your NG tank.
No range, tho. It might only get you to the next 7-11.
I suspect the home fueling gizmo liquifies the NG to
get the energy density up to a reasonable value for a
modest size on-board tank.
>> ... costs about 3.75 cents per mile to fuel.
I gotta wonder if ALL the costs were accounted for in
that reported $/mile figure. Not just the NG expense,
but the power to run the fueler, the lease on the
fueler, and an adjustment (could be up or down) for
unique vehicle maintenance issues.
Our VW diesel runs 5.3 cents/mile for fuel (and has a
500 mi range). That 3.75c/mi is not that attractive.
I suspect a diesel-electric hybrid with regen brakes
and solar assist could easily best this Honda gassy.
The new deisel technology is quite nice.
Yes, but it would cost a whole lot more. More equipment. A more expensive engine to produce, the motor/generators, the control electronics, the batteries, well you get the picture. The batteries would end up making it heavier, thus requiring heavier springs and shocks. You might not get all that much better $/mile, especially if considering total cost of ownership (more stuff to break as well as higher initial cost)
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I was in Macedonia this past summer, and most of the taxis ran on natural gas. Also, many people modified their own vehicles to run on natural gas. Gasoline there was about $5/gal. but the filling stations all had a pump for natural gas. Locally, I think Columbia natural gas company was providing some of their employees with this kind of vehicle.
"Just dang! All the Libs are gonna jump onto that bandwagon, i guarantee it."
Why shouldn't conservatives too?
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