Why is Honda the only company in the US making NGVs?

Question

With all the focus on alternative fuels, natural gas is a very good solution. Most of the natural gas in the US is domestically produced here, and can take a big bite out of our dependence on foriegn oil. I drive over 600 miles a week in my Honda GX (NGV), and I pay around 2$ a gallon for fuel.

Answer 1

Here's why:

1 - CNG (Compressed natural gas) cars have a very short range because, even highly compressed, gas is less dense than liquids, and they can't store enough in the car to make it go very far.

2 - LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) is VERY expensive to make

3 - There are limited fueling stations. I mean limited!

That's a good enough reason that they won't go on slae to the public for a while.

The Honda Civic GX has an optional fueling station that you put in your garage. It's called PHILL. And it "fills" the car with natural gas overnight.


Key points:

1 - Natural gas has 130 octane (vs. 87-93 for unleaded)
2 - Natural gas gets better MPDF (Miles per dollar of fuel)
3 - Natural gas burns cleaner than gasoline

Good luck with your research!

If you have a garage, and never have to drive more than 150 miles at a time, you might want to consider a Honda Civic GX!

Answer 2

I'm curious how you pay $2 a gallon for a fuel that is a gas. Anyway, there are a number of CNG vehicles on the road, The ones I see are mostly pick-up trucks. I believe Dallas has a fleet of CNG buses as well. None of these are made by Honda, so I don't believe they are the only company making them in the US. Who told you this lie?

Answer 3

Because there are few to no stations that sell natural gas. You could probably get a hook-up that goes to your gas line on your house, but even then with as high as natural gas is I don't think you'd be saving much money, especially if everybody started using natural gas. The price to fuel our cars and to heat our homes and water would sky rocket.

You could never go large scale with natural gas. And car companies don't want to invest a lot of money into something that can't eventually be sold on a large scale. Otherwise they will never get their investment back.

Answer 4

Probably because they dont want to invest too much in a fuel that still does do some polluting, car companies would rather invest some money in hybrids or alot in hydrogen cars which make no pollution at all. As of right now the heaviest investment is in hydrogen fuel cells and many fuel cell cars will start showing up in major cities soon, along with hydrogen stations to accompany them.

Answer 5

I think that's great, I know for fact that many countries around the world including 3th world countries are starting to pay attention to this alternative. I think United States should look at that alternative too. I believe that Even though the government says that they want to be independent from oil in fact they are not. The government and the entire America will suffer if we stop using gasoline since this is a big business for corporations and organization in the US

Answer 6

I know of a few trucks that were modified for natural gas.Some companies use the gas for the trucks that read meters and travel a lot.Good choice on your behalf.

Answer 7

because honda is ahead of the game and all cars should be require to have some type of AFV just government is too weak to displease oil producers and displease auto makers

Answer 8

Because everybody else thinks it is a waste of time to make them so they make good looking gasoline running models instead.