CNG stands for Compressed Natural Gas. It is an alternative way to power most types of vehicles, instead of gasoline. Because of large reserves of natural gas that are present in the United States, the popularity of CNG vehicles is growing quickly since the cost is low, and the source of the fuel is not subject to politics elsewhere in the world. Depending on many factors, CNG can be purchased for as little as $1.00 for an amount of fuel equal to one gallon of gasoline. Imagine that, paying $1 per gallon for gas!!!
In many countries, CNG is already very popular and is widely available. In Europe, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden have a large number of CNG filling stations and CNG vehicles are easy to find and purchase. In South America, Argentina is known to have a significant number of CNG stations.
CNG is almost always significantly cheaper than gasoline. In the USA, it is sold in a unit called a "gge", which just means a gallon gasoline equivalent. What this means is that a "gge" of CNG will make your car go just as far as a gallon of regular gasoline. So if you look at our CNG station map, you'll find that prices can range from as little as $1 / gge to about $3 / gge. This is much cheaper than the price of gasoline!
For example, the Honda Civic GX has a CNG tank that hold about 8 "gallons" of CNG. To fill this up, it would cost about $16 if your CNG was $2 / gge (which is not uncommon). The same Honda Civic that runs on gasoline wouuld cost $32 to fill up 8 gallons if gas was $4/gallon. If you drove these cars around town, you would go exactly the same distance in the CNG Civic as the regular gasoline Civic, but for half the cost!
In many countries, CNG vehicles are available at your local car dealer. Many companies make CNG vehicles for the European and South American markets.
The situation is different in the United States. Because CNG is just starting to catch on, it can be difficult to find somewhere to buy a CNG vehicle. If you are looking for a new CNG car with factory service and support, your best bet is to check out the Honda Civic GX. This is a standard Honda Civic manufactured to run only off of CNG.
If you are looking for trucks or other vehicles, your options are a bit more limited. Essentially, you will have to buy a car and convert it to run CNG. This process costs anywhere between $4,000 - $12,000 per vehicle. For more information on conversions, see our CNG Conversions page.
Finally, if you don't mind used vehicles, you can scour the web for used vehicles. The best place to start is generally Craigslist, although there are other sources as well. Try typing "CNG cars" in the Google search below:
