Natural-gas vehicle push in US

NEW ORLEANS (AP):

The United States (US) has record supplies of natural gas and plenty of reasons to promote natural-gas powered cars, but consumers, manufacturers and fuel suppliers haven't shown much interest.

Now, a major natural-gas developer's plans to vastly increase the number of truck stops that offer liquid natural gas could help boost its use in the vehicles that burn the most fuel, while promoting its availability to a wider market.

Lots of natural gas is available, if US drivers decide to use it. In just a few years, domestic natural gas supplies have increased by trillions of cubic feet through shale finds, boosting the supply to the point where plans are in place to export part of the overflow.

Only one natural-gas car is commercially produced in the country: the Honda Civic GX, recently renamed the NG. It has sold a grand total of about 13,000 in 13 years of production.

Honda Motor Co is expanding sales of its Civic NG. The NG carries a basic sticker price of US$26,155, while its gasoline counterpart, the Civic LX, lists at US$20,505.

Sales to be expanded

Until this model year, the GX had only been offered as a private vehicle in dealerships in California, Oklahoma, Utah and New York. Sales will be expanded for the next model year to 37 states, mostly to dealers within 20 miles of a public fueling station, said Honda spokeswoman Jessica Fini.

Honda's goal is to boost sales from about 1,000 cars annually to about 2,000, Fini added, still a tiny fraction of the 259,000 gasoline-powered Civics that Honda sold in 2010.

Gene Paulsen, an aerospace engineer from Gilbert, Ariz., and his wife are on their second GX.

He said his wife now commutes in a used GX he bought in 2009. They mostly refuel from a costly home-refueling appliance, and have added a second fuel tank to drive longer distances.

"It works really well for us," he said. "But the fueling infrastructure isn't very good in Arizona. Until you add more fuel capacity to the thing, you're kind of stuck."