General Motors and Chrysler Group are about to start selling full-size pickups that can seamlessly switch back and forth between natural gas and gasoline.
The trucks have two tanks, and drivers can choose which fuel they want to use; if they run out of one, the vehicle automatically switches to the other.
The ability to run on either fuel is an important step for winning over new customers who might be interested in the cost savings from the significantly cheaper compressed natural gas (CNG) but worry about running out of fuel and not finding a compatible station, said Joyce Mattman, director of commercial product and specialty vehicles for GM.
There are only about 1,000 fueling stations across the country that sell CNG, with roughly half of those open to the general public. But despite the limited CNG stations, almost all the natural gas vehicles sold in the U.S. are CNG-only due to tax breaks that weren't available for bi-fuel vehicles, said Richard Kolodziej, president of Natural Gas Vehicles for America, an industry trade group.
Because of that, there were only 112,000 CNG vehicles on U.S. roads at the end of 2010, the most recent figure available. And a large percentage are heavy-duty vehicles that return to a base each night to refuel, such as city buses, delivery trucks or garbage trucks.
The cost savings of using CNG instead of gasoline is marked. The amount of CNG that is equivalent to a gallon of gasoline now sells for between $1.50 to $2 less than a gallon of regular gasoline. And with growing and abundant supplies cutting natural gas prices, coupled with rising gasoline prices, that gap could grow even larger in the years ahead, saving drivers using CNG thousands of dollars a year.
The CNG vehicles, whether pure CNG or bi-fuel, cost more than their gasoline-only counterparts. Kolodziej's group is pushing for a new tax break to help buyers of both kinds of CNG vehicles with the cost premium. But GM and Chrysler are planning to go ahead with their vehicles whether or not the tax incentive passes, due to the growing demand from businesses looking to save on operating costs.
Both companies' vehicles will lose some of the cargo space in their beds to the CNG tank. But both will be able to carry the same cargo, by weight, and have equal towing capacity as a gas version of the pickup
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