Motors & Drives Information

W ANT TO FILL UP your car for $1.54 a gallon?If you have a car that runs on natural gas, you can do just that, even though gasoline prices in California have topped $2 a gallon since the start of March.

Natural gas is actually a mixture of gases that occur in underground rock formations, the primary component of which is methane. It is used to heat homes, fuel kitchen stoves and run power plants.

It is considered a clean-burning fuel, and for the most part, it doesn't have to be imported from overseas: Most of California's supply comes from the United States and Canada.

Still, natural gas is not very popular as a fuel for automobiles. Cities, school districts, and some private companies use natural gas to fuel their vehicle fleets. Trying to combat air pollution, Oakland International Airport requires that owners of taxicab and shuttle bus companies use an alternative fuel such as natural gas on a portion of their vehicles.

According to the California Energy Commission, there were 745 vehicles on the road in the Bay Area last year that use compressed natural gas. That compares with about 800 electric vehicles and 2,500 hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles. PG&E says

there are only about 50 private users of natural gas vehicles in the East Bay.

But owners of natural gas cars such as Paul Pinney, a deputy district attorney for Alameda County, can't say enough good things about them. The most important benefit, he said, is that natural gas vehicles are always allowed to travel in carpool lanes on Bay Area freeways.

"I love it. It's really been a godsend," said Pinney, who bought a used natural gas-fueled Honda Civic in December. "I can ride in the commuter lane with only one person in the car, which is an immense time savings."

Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which sells natural gas for vehicles in addition to homes and businesses, is trying to promote natural gas as a transportation fuel. While natural gas isn't necessarily as sexy as hydrogen, touted by the Bush Administration and others as the fuel of the future, it's readily available today.

"It's incredibly clean," said PG&E spokesman Jason Alderman, who drives a company-issued natural gas car. "It's from a domestic fuel supply. It's relatively inexpensive."

Some enthusiasts say that companies haven't done enough to promote natural gas cars, though they are made by Ford, Honda and General Motors.

"People just don't know about them," Alderman said.

Drivers say there are positives and negatives to natural gas cars. They cars cost anywhere from $4,000 to $7,000 more than equivalent gasoline cars, but the state offers a $3,000 rebate and the federal government gives a $2,000 tax deduction that can help cover the difference.

They also have limited trunk space. About half of a conventional car's trunk space is used up by the natural gas tank. And they aren't exactly roadsters when it comes to acceleration.

Also, there are fewer than 200 natural gas stations in California, compared with the thousands of gasoline stations. So drivers of natural gas cars need to keep a handbook of those stations handy.

"If you want to go farther than you normally do, you have to plan it out," said Will Mitchell of Moraga, who also drives a natural gas Civic.

The 2002 model of the natural gas Civic can go about 200 miles before it needs to be refueled and can hold the equivalent of 7.2 to 8 gallons of fuel, according to Honda.

Stephen Ellis, manager of alternative fuel vehicles for American Honda Motor Co., said Honda is planning to package a $2,000 home refueling station with the natural gas Civic next fall. That will allow people to hook up their cars to their home natural gas lines and refuel overnight.

Unlike commercial natural gas stations, which take only minutes to fill up, home refueling will take several hours because residential natural gas lines operate at a lower pressure.

Ellis said that another alternative fuel vehicle, the battery- electric car, was a failure in the marketplace, but the introduction of those cars in the 1990s did teach Honda a valuable lesson.

# posted by Medical Information : 2:50 AM