The new Volkswagen Scirocco is one of those cool cars America will never get (yes, I know we had it once, but the new one is sooooo much cooler). VW’s hot little hatchback has the looks and power to make most American small cars cringe in fear. Even cooler? They are working on a version that runs on carbon-neutral bio compressed natural gas.
Try saying that five times fast!
Many of the advancements made through racing and hot rodding have been passed down to the passenger car segment. Nothing quite stimulates innovation like pushing a vehicle to its limits. AFVTech, an alternative-fuels conversion company, is building a compressed natural gas (CNG) hot rod based on the classic ‘33 Ford coupe.
Equipped with a hand built LS7 engine (the same motor found in the Z06 but massaged to run on higher-octane CNG), AFVTech expects their Green Rod to make 600 horsepower.
AT&T just announced that it will spend over half a billion dollars over the next 10 years in an attempt to reduce fuel usage and ostensibly, stimulate the economy. CEO Randall Stephenson stated that companies like AT&T have an “obligation to make investments that will drive the nation’s economic growth and productivity.”
To meet this obligation, AT&T will expand its alternative-fuel vehicle fleet from 100 to 8,000 vehicles by 2020. These vehicles will be U.S.-made compressed natural gas vehicles, amounting to $350 million worth of the total $565 million. Another 7,100 vehicles in AT&T’s passenger fleet will swapped out for electric-hybrids.
Waste Management is investing $29 million in 106 new vehicles and an additional $7.5 million to build a compressed natural gas fueling station in Seattle. When complete, the station will open to the public and within five years all 180 collection trucks in the Seattle fleet will be fueled by CNG.
Nationally, Waste Management already has 265 CNG and has 418 LNG (liquified natural gas) vehicles; and by the end of 2009, the company expects to have 500 LNG vehicles and 299 CNG vehicles in service.
As part of a broader national effort to convert trucks to CNG, the plan would seem to dovetail nicely with what has been proposed by T. Boone Pickens. In addition to advocating for more wind energy to power our light cars and trucks, Pickens supports converting the nation’s truck-fueling infrastructure to natural gas.
In California, the CNG conversion qualifies Carl Tankersley to drive solo in those highly desirable diamond lanes. Yet, although he prominently displays his carpool and CNG stickers as required by law, that doesn’t seem to be enough to stop the cops from disturbing his 30 minute commute on a fairly regular basis.
Don’t get me wrong. As a daily commuter, I drool over the upcoming swath of electric cars and plug-in hybrids. I fantasize about the day when I can ditch my car entirely and ride a high-speed, internet-connected, ultra-quiet Maglev train to work. And, as an avid fan of sci-fi, I also imagine a time when we’ve tapped the power of fusion to run anti-gravity personal transporter devices that fit on our belts.
But I’m also a realist. And, as realist, it’s pretty obvious that any of these pie-in-the-sky fantasies in which we won’t be using liquid fuel at all within 10 years time are missing the bigger picture.
So, to bring us back to reality, for a while now I’ve been chewing on this list of reasons why we’ll still be using liquid fuels in 10, 20, and even 30 years’ time. Look it over and let me know what you think.
Given announcements last Friday that the American auto industry is on the brink of extinction, it seems to me that the more important cars at the show are the ones that, if they’re smart, the American auto industry will quickly turn to as the future of transportation. In honor of these sentiments, it’s only fitting for Gas 2.0 to do a preview of the cars and technologies you care about, and leave the relics to the pros.
I’ll be covering the LA Auto Show during press days on November 19-20, so stay tuned to Gas 2.0 for live coverage. Until then, check out the small taste of what’s to come below.
There is nothing really new about using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a vehicle fuel. It works well in internal combustion engines and it is possible to squeeze enough energy on board in a reasonable size tank at a reasonable pressure to provide gasoline or diesel equivalent range. There are modification kits available for a number of automobiles, there is at least one production automobile (Honda Civic GX) and there are a number of options for buses (Viking CNG BS-III, New Flyer C/L30LF, C/L35LF, C/L40LF, etc.) suitable for municipal fleets.
The new thing, the reason that talk about CNG is growing, is that natural gas now costs about half as much per unit energy as gasoline and has an even greater cost advantage over diesel fuel.
Despite claims to the contrary, it seems like General Motors is getting more and more involved in the refueling business. GM has already invested heavily in two different cellulosic ethanol companies (Coskata and Mascoma), and has now partnered with Clean Energy Fuels Corp. to open a hydrogen fueling station near the Los Angeles Int’l Airport (LAX). The station will be located at Clean Energy’s compressed natural gas (CNG) facility and should be operational by the fall.
Unlike the world’s most fuel efficient car (VW’s 285 MPG bullet), the Honda Civic GX looks like a standard passenger vehicle. What makes it special is what you don’t see: tailpipe emissions that are often cleaner than ambient air.
The Civic GX is powered by compressed natural gas—methane—the simplest and cleanest-burning hydrocarbon available. With an economical 113-hp, 1.8-Liter engine, the EPA has called the Civic the “world’s cleanest internal-combustion vehicle” with 90% cleaner emissions than the average gasoline-powered car on the road in 2004.
And get this: in Utah, natural gas can be purchased for $0.63 per gallon.
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