GM Announces Bi-Fuel Pickups

After all the negative comments we Prius owners get for owning a 'gay' car and GM decide to bring out a Bi Pickup!

Best of both worlds perhaps or maybe just plain greedy

 

You guys in England have a good sense of humor:focus:

But it's about time, anbody that goes to a government auction knows GM and Ford have been doing this for the Fed's for years, I believe they made Cavaliers and Taurus's that ran on CNG also. When ever you see one of these car's on ebay, you know they are ex. government cars

 

From the photo, it looks like the tank takes a big part of the bed, the same part as a tool box is on a lot of these trucks. I wonder if this is just a test nibble, and if it succeeds, gm will produce a better tank.

It seems like a step in the right direction.

 

A person should be able to get a home filling station. I know the Civic natural gas variant never sold that much but does/did exist...

 

Do note that GM is lying by omission. It's 650 mi. -combined-! Most CNG installations will take you 100 - 150 mi on CNG between fillups. And just try to find a place to fill up!
Oh, and don't call me negative. We sell the stuff!
Now, if we went back to a filling station in just about every block like we had in the late 1950s it would work fine.

 

The CNG Civic is popular (in that I never hear owners regret their buying decision), despite the trunk being room-less due to the size of the CNG tank. But the CNG Civic suffers the same way the Gen I Insight did (and even the EV-1) - no national roll out - only AVAILABLE in 7 or 8 states (shaking head). How can you say a car lacks demand when you sell in limited markets, and even there, market it very little. Anyway, at least the GM offering THIS TIME is for true dual fuel. That whole ethanol fiasco is still disturbing many, with its loophole allowing epa mileage to essentially be falsified.
.

 

Really? I thought it might suffer due to the $26k price tag, low range per tank and unremarkable efficiency that puts running costs close to that of a Prius (and that's only after the recent gas price rises). For most of last year it was cheaper to run a Prius.

 

This is one of the smartest moves that GM could have made IMO. It takes all the pressure off the Volt. By doing this they address the worst problem first, the vehicles that use the most fuel. GM can focus all the attention on this new push and (rightfully) promote being the largest provider of the most fuel efficient trucks in the US ( world?).

They aren't lying BTW. It may be the subject article. The one that I read indicated Gas+CNG = 650 miles. Also from that article that they are first addressing the fleet usage. These are the trucks that can return every night to their basing point where each can be refueled with both CNG and gasoline/diesel. They don't need a refueling point on every corner of every intersection on the continent, only at their basing points.

This works perfectly for the huge numbers of heavy trucks that ride our local roads every day, never going more than 100 miles from their basing point. As far as over-the-road rigs, I can see intrepid entrepreneurs setting up CNG refueling stations all along the main national highways simply to satisfy these big rigs. If there's money to be made.......

 

I have a feeling that within the next 5 yrs we'll be seeing a huge increase in the products from a variety of makers that use CNG or CNG+Gas or CNG+Diesel. At that point refueling points won't be lacking.

I've heard of CNG going for prices in the $1.40 range where gas is typically $3.70 or higher. Sign me up for a CNG Prius.

 

They should make a Tribrid by adding the CNG fuel to their Silverado and Sierra Hybrid pickups.


Posted from my iPhone via the Tapatalk app.

 

Agree with most of this. The CNG Civic GX is available nation wide this year. High gasoline and low natural gas prices should help.

There is a tax credit, making it around the same price as a normal civic. Smaller trunk and lack of refilling infrastructure make this a tough sell for the mass market. That dual tank trick gm is using would definitely help on the infrastructure side. Phevs and prii seem like a more likely way to save gasoline today. IMHO cng needs a bigger car to be practicle, and being a hybrid might help with the range/tank size.

 

I'd forgotten about that. It's actually a $4,000 Federal credit so starting at just over $22k. One for the HOV lane Californians or the long-distance commuter in the right location.

 

I like the move by GM. Pickens plan was orig for NG cars but I believe he was told by NG industry they could not support infrastructure for mass refueling for some years.

 

Natural Gas is NOT a silver bullet. If you research the hideous methods now utilized to keep natural gas flowing, it'd make you vomit.

Maybe the billions in profit can go to national health care.

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Unless you have gone off grid with your panels, the odds are you are already filling your ev with natural gas generated electricity. Definitely natural gas can only substitute for some of the oil, but lets use it more

 

Let's see what EPA says, they are completing their evaluation soon.
Natural gas is not a silver bullet, but probably is important future source.

 

Well, definitely not a silver bullet, but it is one renewable source that everyone can, technically, make versus Hydrogen Fuel cells that may be a bit harder to prepare over time. And until we make much more efficient solar cells.

 

As someone previously mentioned, CNG compressors are pretty teeny and can easily be installed in one's garage - and that's in addition to the really modest amount of CNG stations around.