Posted on 10/17/2013 6:06:17 AM PDT by thackney
Capitalizing on America’s abundant supply of clean-burning, low-cost natural gas, General Motors said Wednesday it will build a Chevrolet Impala sedan that can operate on either gasoline or compressed natural gas and travel up to 500 miles between fill-ups.
The bi-fuel Impala, which goes on sale summer as a 2015 model, could be the start of something big. Honda Motor has been selling a natural gas-powered Civic since 2011 and while still modest, sales have been steadily rising. The Japanese carmaker is on track to sell about 2,500 CNG Civics this year, up from 1,900 in 2012 and 1,200 the year before. In July, Ford Motor said its most popular vehicle, the F-150 pickup, will be offered with a compressed natural gas engine starting in the 2014 model year.
“Natural gas will grow increasingly attractive as an alternative fuel source, as we’ve seen each year with natural gas Honda Civic sales, particularly in areas like California where HOV lane access is available,” said Alec Gutierrez, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book. “The lack of infrastructure remains a hurdle, but if more automakers begin to offer CNG-powered vehicles, we could see a greater push for access to CNG in the years to come.”
The Impala’s bi-fuel powertrain is engineered to switch seamlessly from CNG to gasoline, which should reassure consumers worried about finding a place to refuel. For business fleet customers, whose drivers return to a central location, CNG refueling shouldn’t be a problem. GM did not announce the new car’s price, which is likely to be higher than the standard gas model, but savings at the pump could offset that extra payout quickly.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
As soon as diesel got popular they jacked the price up and put more and more restrictions on it, nah , there is nothing they would do to natural gas to tax it or any restrictions once it got popular.
“That can be worked around, by doing the thing modular. Keep two tanks, one being always recharged. Load charged tank instead of charging the car.”
That sounds much simpler than stopping at a gas station. And very convenient for apartment dwellers too! Sounds like fueling the space shuttle. And those talks generally take up the whole trunk.
“Who says it has to be one big tank ? “
Crumple zones, car accidents, sparks, and safety pretty much.
Since it would add to weight to use the wasted space and have a reasonable amount of built in safety in tanks in those wasted spaces, it’s “best” to have one tank, reasonably protected somewhere low and central.
But still, I hear ya on the wasted space.
If it wasn’t designed as a box and more aerodynamic it would even get better gas mileage.
yeah,,fill the quarter panels with fuel, wear an asbestos suit for the accidents.
Technology has vastly improved in the last 34 years since that Vega was built.
It seems that technology has reduced the fuel mileage of vehicles and introduced alcohol fuel which is detrimental to older vehicles. I live in the mountains and since the floods I have to drive 4X4 roads about 10 miles to get out. These compressed fuels would be much more dangerous and impossible to use in some of my vehicles.
*NNyuggg!*
Yeah.
Add to that realm of ugly the Scion xB [xtra Boxy?] and the Cube.
Whoever designed those things needs to be beaten with a Pontiac Aztec bumper.
“The compressor cost $10,000 and takes 8 to 16 hours to recharge the tank depending on tank size.”
Oh BS.
Honda sells their home unit for $4900, not $10k. Chessapeake has been working with GE to get one out for $500, not $10k. Good freaking grief.
Yeah, it takes a while to fill up at your home, but it’s a FULL TANK. What do you think people are doing? Standing in their garage all night waiting for the tank to fill? What else is your car doing at night that it can’t be refilled? Does your gasoline car have a 100% full tank every morning?
Every time someone posts about NG vehicles, a few start posting the most hyperbolic “facts,” rivaled only by anti-fracking nut jobs.
The post I was responding to was LNG, not CNG.
First of all, this article lost me at “Chevrolet” - I’m not buying ANY Government Motors car so long as Uncle owns a single share or has a single board member. However, I did rent one earlier this year, so I’ll comment about it even if I won’t ever buy one.
The 2014 Impala with a 3.6 liter, 305 hp engine will do 0-60 in 6.7 seconds, a quarter mile in 15.0 at nearly 94 mph, and can get 28 mpg on the highway. Combined with an 18.5 gallon tank, that’s a range of 518 miles. Having driven a 2013 (which is essentially the same car), I can verify that it has excellent acceleration - nearly as good as my ‘69 GTO. I also got about 30 mpg on the road at 65, though I admit it fell “a bit” when I was testing its torque curve out.
The only thing new about this car is the CNG option - which is a good one, mind you, if you can actually find any of the stuff. I suspect it’ll become more available over time, but the performance is nothing better than at present with a “mere” gasoline engine.
Oh, and Chevy is supposed to come out with a nearly 200-horse, 4-cylinder later this year that will likely get at least 2-3 mpg better.
Of course, if the assholes would produce a diesel hybrid for a car like this they could get 40 mpg in the city and on the highway, and you’d have a car with lots of leg room and trunk space, plus tons of torque to make it a fun car (especially with the flexibility of a 6-speed transmission).
There are business even setting up manufacturing here in the USA because the cost of production, electricity and raw materials are cheaper because of the plentiful natural gas
The Governor of Colorado Mr. Chickenpooper has added a $2B tax to the rural electric producers and added layers of “Green” and “Global Warming” regulations on rural communities. Coal prices are skyrocketing as the EPA restriction and mine closures.
Oh yeah I remember the Pinto.
Square pistons.
(Okay, “oblong”.. but still.)
Yes, they do need ot rethink how they do things.
But, the NTSC/highway safety mongers probably will want their two cents/pond of flesh in there.
The Delorean had an interesting frame I haven’t seen anywhereelse that could be used in a fashion like you describe, the frame is a box frame, shaped like a double ended tuning fork.
Apply “wet wing” tech to the frame, and you have extra fuel space.
But.. The highway safety commitee will want their say in anything.
Natural gas powered vehicles have been around for decades as well as the technology for transporting and safely filling tanks. The US has an abundance of natural gas and left to the market natural gas powered vehicles could easily become a popular alternative to gasoline. However, I would expect that the government and environmentalists will muck things up and force us to use more ethanol and electric powered cars that survive in the market only because of massive government subsidies.
Consider the state, Colorado
Back when I had my Jetta diesel (750+ miles/tank), I worked with a guy who had one too, and he had added am auxiliary 30 gallon tank in the trunk. He could drive from Connecticut practically to the Rocky Mountains on a single fill up.
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