Cleanest car – Honda Civic Gx
Posted by puthick on May 26, 2008
Honda Civic Gx runs on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), containing mostly methane (CH4). Burning natural gas is less polluted than petrol making Honda Civic Gx even cleaner than Toyota Prius according to 2008 Greenest Vehicles. Honda Civic Gx (USD 25,000) is likely to be more affordable than Toyota Prius (about AUD 50,000) since it does not rely on the fancy battery technology. Using CNG in vehicles is common for buses and industry vehicles.
Although Honda Civic Gx is a perfect vehicle in terms of economic and environment, it is not available in Australia. In my perception, the Commonwealth Government of Australia does not have the courage to make Australian household cars less reliant on petrol. They are talking about excise and GST on petrol without mentioning the use of natural gas in vehicles. Sometimes because the November 2007 federal election, the Howard government introduced rebate for people who convert their cars from petrol to Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG). Since the engine was designed for petrol, it is perfect for LPG. It would be foolish to buy a band-new car and covert it to LPG. Now the new labor government and the opposition have no mention about this type of vehicles running on natural gas, which can be better than LPG.
Other people to blame is of course the Oil companies. They are making a whole lot of profit when the oil price is rising since people need cars to carry not only themselves but also other stuff. I think in Australia, oil companies are blinding the government of this development of Honda Civic Gx. Australia has significant amount of natural gas deposit making CNG is an alternative fuel during a transition time before a renewable fuel is found for cars.
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