If you thought that GM’s North American CNG vehicle portfolio would begin and end with the outgoing Chevrolet Silverado 2500 and GMC Sierra 2500 CNG pickup trucks, that’s where you’d be wrong, as we’re surprised with a spy shot of a 2014 Chevrolet Impala with a CNG sticker and manufacturer’s plate testing around in Colorado.
A notable difference are the different tail pipe designs from what we currently see with the 2014 V6 Impala, out today. There also happens to be a set of power cords sticking out from the front bumper, something we’re sure won’t be in the production version, if there is to be one.
For a full gallery, visit The Motoring Journal.
Comments
Sweet.
There are still some CNG Chevy Cavaliers rolling around SJ, I think leftover from government fleets.
Duct tape and wires hanging out this might be the new rat rod option.
Hmmm, interesting. This seems like a smart move to me.
It’s a VERY smart move for most of the USA. Most people will “fill up” in their own garage! You can have your own fuel station- how cool is that. Natural gas is probably in more homes in the US than any other energy. Electric cars, hybrids, and stupid ideas like Ethanol are pipe dreams with complexity and weight that will break down. Even with a $4-6K premium, your break even is 2-3 years. After that, it’s all gravy.
You could even power a cool car that GM made off the A-Body, the 6000 SUX. Big is back, because bigger is better!
Those awful, complicated electric motors with their 1 moving part! Grrr, how unreliable! CNG will show ’em how it’s done, yessir!
How about the 410 hp engine from the Cadillac XTS? That would be even nicer.
We got LPG Astra, Vectra & Omega back around the year 2000 if my memory is correct, the additional gas tank was in the tyre well with no spare tyre just a spray can to get you home like in the vx220 (for weight saving reasons) unfortunately LPG never really caught on with the buyers so sales were small.
Not sure how well this would be accepted outside fleet cars. If you have a fleet and established fueling stations they can be very popular and economical.
For the owner out of his area and low on fuel may wonder where do I fill up and will I make it there. The cars are ready but the fueling points are subjective depending on where you live.
The key to Diesel, Electric and CNG is to get the average car buyer to show interest enough to consider these models. The trouble is most do not know much about them and or care. GM if they want these to work must put an effort into marketing them.
The other key is to make them to the point that they are no harder to fill, charge of operate than any other car. The Volt and Diesel are pretty much there and CNG only needs to be more easily available in some areas. GM needs to address this with the public to make them better understand this. Americans are very entrenched with Gasoline and they need to be shown there are alternatives.
All three of these segments need to be gown as non will be a run away hit right out of the box. It will take time and money but it can be done. Even then it will always remain a smaller part of the auto segment here but with overseas sales of Diesels and fleet sales of CNG GM will make money.
If they can offer a cheaper basic model of the Impala they can pick up the easy money from the Taxi fleets. THese cars are so basic they should have zero affect on resale prices of public models. They are not the fanciest cars and generally when taxi fleets are done with them they are used up. It is a safe fleet segment.
How many people want to buy used taxis unless they are a private taxi driver?
These are Bi-fuel cars meaning there are two tanks one CNG taking part of the trunk space and the normal gas tank. The Gasoline tank is 18.5 gallons, The CNG tank could be 8-10 gallons in addition. This means 240-300 more miles of range between fill ups on Highway driving.
There is also a big push to line the nations interstate systems with stations first, and move on to cities. Many companies are already building these stations, and more are joining in on the movement. Several states already have a strategic infrastructure in place where you can go anywhere in the state and be in range of another fill station. My state alone has added 10 stations alone in the last few years which allows me to go anywhere I could want to go on CNG. I have a bi-fuel truck made in 05, the gasoline in the tank usually gets a year old or older before I use it up, and I only use it to make sure to keep it somewhat fresh =)
I can drive from Wyoming all the way down to San Diego without using a single drop of gasoline all with paying $1.50-2.10 per gallon all the way there and back.
CNG national average price per gallon is around $2.50 vs gasoline at $3.64.
CNG can be found as low as a $1.00 per gallon depending on the area you live in, and who developed the station. Clean energy has the highest retail prices for CNG topping over $3.00 a Gallon… they are in it to try and make their investors money, and not really to make the fuel an appealing alternative. The lowest priced stations are at the state and gas companies produced stations, some private companies too.
There are more stations than you know of and plenty more in the works, you can watch them pop up all over the country from this website. http://www.cngprices.com/station_map.php
Diesel stations used to be few and far in-between until it went big with trucking companies and spilled over to smaller trucks and cars. The same thing is happening to CNG, where big companies see the bottom line price advantage and there is now a shift away from diesels in their fleets. The CNG engines are being made with comparable power to the diesels and a much quieter, tons cleaner, and also simpler in maintenance. Imagine sleeping trough garbage day, because the trash truck didn’t wake you up rumbling down the street! =)