Electric vehicles be damned… Honda Motor Co.’s (NYSE:HMC) been quietly ramping up for nationwide U.S. retail sales of its natural gas-powered Civic GX this fall. The car is something of an oddity, toiling away in the shadows of more “press-friendly” electric cars.
We’ve all heard of the electric Roadster from Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), the Leaf from Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (PINK:NSANY) and the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt from General Motors Company (NYSE:GM). How many of us have heard of the Civic GX?
The GX runs on compressed natural gas (CNG) and is currently available at 139 dealerships in 33 states. This fall, Honda hopes to have a revamped model in showrooms across the country. And the timing couldn’t be better. Nationwide, gas prices are hovering around $3.95 a gallon (per GasBuddy). Compare that to natural gas where the cost of a Gasoline Gallon Equivalent (GGE) ranges from $0.88 in Oklahoma to $2.60 in New York.
Despite competing with an ever-growing array of hybrid and electric cars, the GX has still taken the “Greenest Vehicle of the Year” award from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy for eight years running. Best of all, Honda’s currently got a monopoly on the CNG passenger car market.
And that’s led to robust sales for the admittedly small market. Sales this year (at 643) are already three times higher than they were at this point in 2010, per the Los Angeles Times. Pending a steady supply of parts out of Japan, Honda hopes to produce at least 2,000 GX’s this year at a base price of $25,490.
Whether natural gas cars will one day out-number electric vehicles is up for debate, but there are several benefits to CNG cars:
- Low-cost fuel (ranging from less than $1 to $2.50+ per GGE)
- Greener power when compared with electric vehicles (as the overwhelming majority of electricity comes from fossil fuel-based power plants)
- 85+ percent of natural gas is produced domestically
The biggest hurdle to full-scale adoption of natural gas-powered cars is the lack of filling stations. As of January, there were fewer than 1,000 versus 200,000 gasoline stations (per CNBC). The government’s trying to bump up that number via tax incentives and credits.
One of my favorite selling points for CNG vehicles? Individual consumers can also pony up about $6,000 to get a home-based filling station installed that taps into existing natural gas lines (per the Los Angeles Times). If you log enough miles behind the wheel, a CNG almost sounds like a no-brainer.
Related
|
MAY I BORROW THAT CAR?
|
BUFFETT’S FOLLY
|
|
THE FUTURE OF BATTERIES?
|
PRECIOUS ETFS
|
|
TECHNOLOGY IPO CALENDAR
|
MIRRORS + THE DESERT SUN = LOTS OF POWER
|
Tags: CNG, electric car companies, GM, HMC, Honda, natural gas, natural gas prices, natural gas stocks, natural gas vehicles, NSANY, TSLA
I have a web site where I give advise on penny stocks and stocks under five dollars. I have many years of experience with these type of stocks. If their is anyone that is interested in these type of stocks you can check out my web site by just clicking my name. I would like to comment about commodities. With all the hopla about commodities their is one commodity that I think is a real bagain here natural gas. the price of natural gas is down by 66% over the last two years . I think it a great buy here. their is an exchange traded note that tracks the price of natural gas using futures contracts it trades under the symbol {GAZ }