Automotive Car Review: Alternative Fuels

Alliance to Promote Natural Gas Hybrids

The American Public Gas Association (APGA), NGVAmerica, and Hybrid Kinetic Motors Corporation (HK Motors) formed an alliance to promote the mass production of natural gas powered hybrid cars. The alliance will promote the following ideals: <ul><li>Promoting consumer interest in natural gas hybrids</li><li>Encouraging federal and state governments to extend the current range of incentives to encourage consumers, businesses, and governments to choose natural gas hybrid vehicles and the infrastructure necessary to sustain them. This would include advocating the passage of “The NAT GAS Act of 2009” (HR 1435; S. 1408)”</li><li>Promoting research and development efforts of natural gas vehicle/infrastructure technologies as well as related business models</li><li>Working with natural gas distribution companies to install home fueling appliances and provide services for NGV purchasers</li><li>Encouraging fleet owners of CNG fueling stations to expand their installations to include retail access to new NGV car owners</li><li>Supporting access to more domestic supplies of natural gas.</li></ul> Hybrid Kinetic Motors will be building a new line of hybrids at their plant in Alabama starting in 2013.  Natural gas hybrids will be similar to gas-electric hybrids except for that one small detail. Which is why supporting more domestic supplies of natural gas and encouraging an infrastructure to support it is so important before 2013. “The American public is becoming very familiar with hybrid technology, and this is the next evolution,” says Richard Kolodziej, president of NGVAmerica. “This new collaboration intends to break through the ‘chicken or egg’ barriers that have limited natural gas from being recognized by the public for what it is: the most abundant, efficient, environmentally friendly and affordable domestic fuel for consumer vehicles,” said Bert Kalisch, president of APGA. Natural gas offers significant greenhouse gas advantages. Compared to gasoline vehicles, NGVs produce 29 percent less greenhouse gases. When vehicle power-trains are designed specifically to use natural gas and combined with hybrid technologies, greenhouse gas levels can be reduced by half while providing fuel efficiency to meet or exceed the new federal standards.