WASHINGTON--March 12, 2012: The swing toward natural gas vehicles (NGV) took on aspects of a bandwagon last week as two major automakers paraded out new natural gas-powered pickup trucks, and General Electric (GE) and Chesapeake Energy Corp. heralded a new "CNG In A Box" fueling station design, Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) reports.
“At the end of the day it doesn't matter how much natural gas or flexfuel or electric vehicles you have, if there's no place to charge them up or fill them up”
Not to be left out, American Honda Motor Co., which bills itself as the only automaker selling natural gas-powered passenger cars in the U.S. (Honda Civic), said it would help to answer the "chicken and egg" conundrum by installing compressed natural gas (CNG) pumps in some of its dealerships.
With gasoline prices heading skyward, President Obama also hopped aboard the natural gas bandwagon, addressing the "which comes first" question in his $1 billion National Community Deployment Challenge to spur deployment of alternative fuel vehicles in communities around the country.
"At the end of the day it doesn't matter how much natural gas or flexfuel or electric vehicles you have, if there's no place to charge them up or fill them up," Obama said at the Daimler Trucks North America Mt. Holly Truck Manufacturing Plant in Mount Holly, NC. "So that's why I'm announcing...a program that will put our communities on the cutting edge of what clean energy can do. To cities and towns all across the country, what we're going to say is 'if you make a commitment to buy more advanced vehicles for your community, whether they run on electricity or biofuels or natural gas, we'll help you cut through the red tape and build fueling stations nearby.'"
The program includes incentives to communities to invest in necessary infrastructure, new tax incentives for advanced cars and truck and support for the development of up to five regional liquefied natural gas corridors where alternative fuel trucks could transport goods without using oil.
Obama's support of alternative fuel vehicles came on the heels of announcements by General Motors (GM) and Chrysler that they would have new bifuel CNG pickup trucks for fleet operators on the road before the year gets much older.
GM's Chevrolet and GMC units last Monday rolled out a new bifuel CNG line of 2013 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra 2500 HD extended cab pickup trucks that are to offer a 650-mile range. GM will be taking orders in April and initial models are to be on the road by the end of this year. After GM's trucks come off the assembly line, they will be sent to GM's supplier, IMPCO Technologies Inc., for installation of the CNG system.
Chrysler Group LLC said last Tuesday it plans to become North America's only auto manufacturer to offer a fully factory-built CNG pickup truck. Pricing for the Chrysler vehicle is to start at $47,500, and the first contingent of the new trucks are to be on the market in July. Chrysler said its Ram 2500 heavy duty CNG pickups will be powered by the 5.7 liter HEMI(r) V-8 engine and would feature both CNG storage tanks and an 8-gal gasoline fuel tank.
GM is not giving a price range for the natural gas/gasoline vehicles, but with CNG prices around the low $2/gallon-gasoline equivalent, customers are expected to recover any added sticker price with fuel savings of $6,000-10,000/vehicle over a three-year period, according to GM's Joyce Mattman, director of commercial product and specialty vehicles.
The GM and Chrysler CNG systems operate similarly -- gasoline is needed to start the truck and then the CNG kicks in automatically.
And now about that chicken or egg: Chesapeake and GE last week unveiled "CNG In A Box," a natural gas fueling system, which they claim will lower fleet vehicle fueling costs by 40% and emissions by 24%.
GE will be rolling out its proprietary "CNG In A Box" later this year with around 250 modular and standardized CNG compression stations for NGV infrastructure. Since Chesapeake has a leasehold in almost every major unconventional natural gas basin in the United States, it's a foregone conclusion that some of those CNG boxes (your choice: an 8X20 foot or 8X40 foot container) will be turning up in some of those production areas (see related CNG Box story in NGI's March 12 edition).
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