Get Ready for Natural Gas Powered Cars

March 23, 2012 :: Posted by - admin :: Category - Green Cars

With volatile gas prices, it is expected to see natural gas powered cars on the road sooner than estimated. Automakers are getting ready to make use of the blooming prospects of natural gas production and the proposed tax credits and go all out for future production.
Chrysler is leading the pack when it starts to sell its Ram 2500 Heavy-duty pick-up said to be running on compressed natural gas. The heavy-duty truck pick up has tanks for gasoline and natural gas with automatic shifting provision in its engines. The dashboard contains gauges for both fuels.
On the other hand GM is also set to sell its first natural gas powered car -Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Siera 2500 HD giving Chrysler an early competition. Ford Motors has been unchallenged since 2009 with its natural-gas ready pick-ups is now heading for more improvements to beat competitions.
Natural gas has been the favorite alternative for highly priced gasoline. It is deemed as the solution in importation issues as sources are from domestic grounds. Natural gas is seen as good fuel alternatives with 30% less green house gas emission making it eco-friendlier. Natural gas is also cheaper than other fuel like diesel and gasoline. The United Sates has abundant source of natural gas and production is much cheaper making it a cheap alternative fuel supply.
But natural gas are not that attractive to U.S. consumers as there is still less numbers of fueling stations making it a hard to find fuel source. Most fuel stations are owned by local government and private fleet owners. These fleet owners are the priority of these filing stations. Another reason is that there is a limited choice as there is only one Car Company that is dedicated to natural gas powered car. Honda, a Japanese carmaker has been the sole distributor of natural gas-cars in the U.S.
The cost of additional fuel tanks and parts also hinder the attractiveness of natural gas powered cars. A natural gas built car also has high price tags of $26,000 for Civic. Although GM is not giving hints on the price of its Ram version, observers predict it could be on the upscale class. The coast of conversion is also high and a cost of $18,000 to convert one car to natural gas is a lot of money on the part of the vehicle owners.
Critics of gasoline are predicting that with all the things going around the importation and uncontrollable high price of gasoline, natural gas has a big chance to provide the best solution. However, car critics riveted by saying as long as the high price sticks for a long time, carmakers will always be on the lookout for the best alternative solutions.