Gasoline Prices Got You

Jan. 1, 2020

TORRANCE, CA (Sept. 2, 2005) - Are you paying enough to fuel up your vehicle? We've got gasoline, diesel, biofuels, hybrids and hydrogen...

ALTERNATIVE FUELGasoline Prices Got You
By the Throat?

TORRANCE, CA (Sept. 2, 2005) - Are you paying enough to fuel up your vehicle? We've got gasoline, diesel, biofuels, hybrids and hydrogen. Some are in current use; others on the near horizon. Yet with existing technology and available supply, there's a fuel alternative on America's roads today that is cheaper, ultraclean and convenient.

The Honda Civic GX is the only natural gas-powered vehicle sold to the American public. It's also built in Ohio. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) called the Civic GX the "Greenest Vehicle of the Year" in overall environmental performance, including hybrids. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has noted the vehicle was the cleanest internal combustion engine-powered vehicle ever tested by the Agency. While gasoline pricing surged past and then settling back to the $3 per gallon range, natural gas pricing is currently in the range of $1.80 to $2.00 per gasoline-gallon-equivalent, a saving approaching 50 percent.

The Phill home refueling appliance, manufactured and marketed by FuelMaker Corp., is available for lease from authorized Honda CNG dealers in California on a limited retail sales basis.
(Photo: Honda)

Natural gas is readily available, from domestic production or from nations friendly to the United States. Many of us are familiar with it, from heating our homes or running appliances - and it's cleaner burning.

So if the Honda Civic GX is a lower-cost, ultraclean and convenient alternative ... what's the catch? Infrastructure.

Today there simply aren't enough fueling stations. Outside of California's 135 stations, one would be hard pressed to find a natural gas fueling station outside of fleet operators having their own equipment.

But for those who already have natural gas supplied to their homes for heating and other uses, the option of using their home natural gas supply line to fuel their cars overnight is now available. Phill, a new product manufactured and installed by FuelMaker Corp., is payphone sized and can be mounted on a garage wall or outdoors.

The company says the unit offers simple "start" and "stop" buttons and automatically turns itself off when the tank is full. Civic GX buyers can purchase the units from FuelMaker or lease a unit in California through Honda dealers.

Although the $20,510 MSRP for the Honda Civic GX is higher than a similar gasoline-powered Civic, the federal government currently offers a $2,000 tax deduction on the purchase of a new alternative fuel vehicle.

(Source: Honda, ACEEE)