It wasn’t so long ago that electric vehicles were touted as the technology that would inevitably displace gasoline-powered vehicles. And maybe they will, despite disappointing first-year sales of the Chevy Volt. Nevertheless, gasoline vehicles soon will get a dose of healthy competition from another quarter — natural gas — which is excellent news.
We’re referring to announcements by Chrysler and General Motors that they will build production-line pickup trucks fueled with natural gas. Chrysler will apparently be first on the market with a select number of Ram trucks equipped with compressed natural gas tanks, and later this year GM will introduce a CNG version of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC 2500 pickups.
Admittedly, Honda has been marketing a CNG-only vehicle for more than a decade. Chrysler and GM are building their vehicles to run on either natural gas or gasoline, which should solve the problem of “range anxiety,” in which consumers fear running out of fuel far from one of the few stations where CNG is sold.
In Colorado, for example, most of the 29 CNG stations are located in metro Denver. That number will surely rise as more consumers purchase vehicles that run on natural gas, but the growth is likely to be slow, so the bi-fuel vehicles will give motorists peace of mind while the process unfolds.
Colorado has an indirect stake in the success of CNG vehicles since it remains one of the top natural-gas-producing states. That’s a big reason Gov. John Hickenlooper last fall joined with three governors of other natural-gas-rich states — Oklahoma, Wyoming and Pennsylvania — to pledge to convert portions of their state transportation fleets to CNG. (The group has now grown to 11, with the additions of Maine, Utah, New Mexico, West Virginia, Kentucky, Texas and Ohio.)
We supported the governors’ initiative, but have always recognized that natural gas is unlikely to become a significant alternative to gasoline until automakers bring CNG technology to the showroom and eliminate the necessity for costly conversions.
The fact that Chrysler and GM have seen the light is not surprising given the recent revolution in natural gas production due to horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Natural gas prices won’t always be as low as they are today, of course, but proven reserves are so great that the price shouldn’t soar out of sight, either, as it might have in the past.
Over the past six years, according to Bloomberg News, the U.S. “has reversed a two-decade-long decline in energy independence, increasing the proportion of demand met from domestic sources.”
Giving consumers a chance to purchase bi-fuel vehicles that can run on domestic supplies of natural gas will only accelerate that trend toward energy independence.
And the fact that some of it will come from Colorado only adds icing to the cake.
