Plug-in Or Cng....

[wwest]

Why not add a compressed natural gas tank and a smallish genset, say the Honda EU2000, to continuously charge the hybrid batteries?

Natural gas can compressed and pumped in at home and with no road taxes.

[RX400h]

Where, pray tell, would you fit a natural gas tank...on the roof (like a city bus)? Dang, that would look pretty weird!

[katzjamr]

WWEST i think the article was in car and driver, you get this honda that runs on compressed nat gas and they lease u something called a PHIL that allows u to use your home gas line to fill your car at a slow rate overnight. It sounded pretty cool.

[wwest]

Yes, phill is the home fill system and I have seen picture of the CNG tank mounted just behind the back seat. Can't help but think of the Rx400h converted to CNG with a small CNG compatable genset to continually recharge the hybrid batteries.

[katzjamr]

Isnt there a range issue with CNG because it takes more compressed gas than refined gas to go the same distance.

[jashev]

With the price of natural gas this would not turn out to be a great advantage. The real advantage to using natural gas was emissions which is why there were so many experiments with CNG in urban areas.

It doesn't burn any more efficiently than gasoline and in my experience (though this was a number of years ago working for a public gas utility in NYC) actually got worse mileage.

[wwest]

What is the relative cost, based on miles driven/unit, of filling the CNG tank from your home natural gas source (no "road" taxes) vs gasoline?

And we're not talking about eliminating the gas tank, most conversions allow a switch-over if the CNG is exhausted.