The FINANCIAL — According to Gulfnews, Honda Motor Co., aiming to expand its range of low-pollution autos in the US, is studying ways to boost sales of natural gas-powered Civics to capitalise on consumer interest in gasoline alternatives.
The company now sells only about 1,000 Ohio-built Civic GX sedans a year in California and other states with natural-gas fuel stations open to the public, John Mendel, executive vice president of Tokyo-based Honda's US sales unit, said in an interview. Sales could rise to 10 times that level, he said, without giving a specific target.
"We're looking very strongly at that," Mendel said. "As you saw us expand Civic GX beyond California, we're looking at plans to expand it further."
Natural-gas autos, sold by many carmakers in the 1980s and 1990s, fell from favour in the past decade because of federal fuel-economy credits for less-costly ethanol-powered models, a drop in gasoline prices and the volatile cost of natural gas. The GX currently is the only natural-gas model still sold directly to consumers by a major auto manufacturer.
The compact sedan travels 220 miles when fully fuelled with the equivalent of eight gallons of natural gas. The company, Japan's second-largest automaker, built 1,000 of the cars in East Liberty, Ohio, in 2007, and plans to make at least 1,100 this year, spokesman Ed Miller said.
By comparison, Honda sold 32,575 Civic Hybrids to US customers last year, and Toyota Motor Corp. recorded 277,750 such hybrid sales, led by the Prius. Hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles increase fuel efficiency by combining a battery-powered electric motor and a gasoline engine.
Honda and Toyota share top US fuel-efficiency rankings. Honda later this year will begin leasing hydrogen fuel-cell Clarity sedans in California and in 2009 will add its first US diesel model to help improve the efficiency of its fleet.
The US Environmental Protection Agency rates the GX as the cleanest internal-combustion engine auto ever tested, and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy this month named the model "America's greenest car."
"We're thinking about how to expand it because it's the one unique technology we have out there right now," said Honda Vice President Dan Bonawitz, who oversees US product development.
"Tonight Show" host and car collector Jay Leno, who reviewed the GX and home-refueling device on his program and Web site earlier this year, said the dilemma for natural-gas cars is mainly cosmetic.
"It's not trendy; it doesn't seem new enough," Leno said. "People hear natural gas and think 'that's what they run the city buses on'."
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