Toyota Displays Hybrid Synergy Drive® Versatility With CNG-Powered Camry Hybrid Concept

I understand the part about money not going to foreign oil countries. But my point is about consumers having to pay higher prices for heating and cooking etc. If CNG vehicles cause that to happen then where's the net gain?

I'd rather see vehicles use electricity that's generated from renewable sources that will never run out and will emit the least amount of toxics into our air.

BTW, If I'm not mistaken, the percentage of electricity generated from CNG has already increased in recent years.

 

Well, now you're getting into T. Boone Pickens whole thing.
He wants wind farms to replace natural gas in the electrical generation, and to use EVs for commuter use. Then the natural gas that's saved from electrical generation would be used to power trucks and long-distance vehicle usage. Of course, we'd need to beef up our electrical grid because the wind can be blowing in one area and not in another, so we need to respond to variations better than we do now.

But even if we don't do that, switching 1% of the nation's transportation system won't make a bit of difference in prices that people see when running their utilities (think of how much the electric grid uses already). For reference, hybrids are currently about 2.6% of the market, half of that is the Prius. But if we start switching 30% or more of our new vehicles to natural gas, then we need to worry about that.
Even so, I'd be happy to pay a bit more for my utility bills if I know that the terrorists in the middle east are going hungry, and they may have to slow down their building of useless cities in the Dhubai (putting up immense buildings but they don't have the electricity or water to supply them with).

I say bring this on! I'd buy this vehicle in a hearbeat if I was in the market for a new vehicle. We desparately need to diversify our transportation usage.

Iran is mandating that all cars built there run on natural gas instead of gasoline. Think they might know something we don't?

 

Iran has oil, but not refineries. In itself a curious state of affairs, that they spend more effort on nuclear weapons than petrol self-sufficency.

 

They also have quite a bit of natural gas, which is harder to ship than oil. For them it's better to use the gas themselves and save the oil for exports. But you're right about the nuclear weapon thing. Still, you gotta wonder if the OPEC countries still have as much oil available as they say they do. If they don't, our economy is really screwed unless we get more cars like this Camry on the road.

 

ZenMachine, I'm definitely a proponent of all-electric cars, and I would love to see 90% of all cars produced every year to be all electric ... BUT that's not going to happen tomorrow, and it's not going to happen three years from now either. In the interim time period, we need a transition fuel to get us off of imported crude oil until we can build the infrastructure for all-electric and better develop the technology.

Nerfer, very well said ! (both of your comments) Excellent.

Most notably: "Even so, I'd be happy to pay a bit more for my utility bills if I know that the terrorists in the middle east are going hungry"

And, let us not forget Russia also. When Oil was at $147/barrel, Vladimir Putin was on a power trip. Now that oil is at $50/barrel, you don't hear him preaching any more.

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Here it is.

 

Finally after 9 months! It is a touring edition too.

Which CNG car do you have? Civic?

 

I have a 2003 Chevy Cavalier Bi-fuel CNG. I live in Utah and sometimes the CNG stations are only working at par, so the bi-fuel option comes in handy. Believe me, I have considered the Honda Civic GX, but I'm not quite ready to make the plunge to dedicated. Maybe when the CNG-hybrids hit the showrooms then I go dedicated.

 

hydrogen cell Prius?
It's parked right next to the unicorns, jet packs and cold nuke fusion devices:

(see 6 posts down)
http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...-completes-government-field-evaluation-2.html

 

Haha.

 

My Prius is LPG-powered hybrid, I've just converted it now 2 weeks. See more info+pics here.

By the way.. there is a difference between LPG and CNG? Which one?
A final question.. did anyone mounted a CNG conversion kit on his Prius, or they are cars which are sold CNG-ready?:focus:

 

It's not that it'll have NO trunk ... just way smaller. Heck, with the highlander & lexus RX being on the camry platform ... and tons more room, you'd think they'd stick the CNG in the bigger body. Oh well ... there I go thinking again.

Whoops! this is a Zombie thread. I thought I'd already heard of this.
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Oh! (EDIT) now I see why the thread was brought back to life:

How many gallons does the little donut tank hold? I'd converted a Ford Econoline to LPG back in the 1970's but 30 years later, the U.S. Prius has TONS of emission controls on it. I'd hate to think how many red lights would come up on the dash, when (for instance) the ECU's didn't see the charcoal canister, the fuel tank, fuel injecters etc. Aside from all that ... VERY nice job!

 

The tank has 34 liters/8.98 gallons from his construction, but when it's full with LPG, they don't enter more than 28 liters/7.4 gallons.
Regarding those red lights, I didn't had any problem with my Prius. Only when I've dismantled the admission gallery to give holes on it (for LPG injectors), I've had an engine/service alarm because I've had to take out that black box with air filter. Now, the LPG ECU communicates with OBD-II and learns the driving style on petrol, and after this, it adapts it to the LPG driving style.

Please ask me more questions if you want, but if they are technically, use the dedicated topic for my conversion.

Thanks a lot for your appreciation regarding my installation!

BR,
Andrei