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This is Penelope II, my 1993 Dodge B250 Ram Wagon (3/4 ton 8-passenger van), with a 5.2 liter (318 cubic inch) V-8 engine that runs on compressed natural gas (CNG). Unlike, say, a GM EV1 or Honda EV Plus electric car, which were designed for alternative power from the ground up, you can hardly tell that this isn't a perfectly ordinary gasoline-burning vehicle. The only clues (besides the blue "CNG" diamond label on the rear and the license plate and frame, plus a few decals I've added since the photo was taken) are those odd white cylinders hanging off the underside of the body at the rear and along the left side. These are the fuel tanks; there are two behind the rear axle, replacing the standard gasoline tank...
...and two more mounted along the length of the vehicle, to the left of the driveshaft.
The three white tanks are what the vehicle came with, stock; they store an amount of natural gas that is about equivalent to 9 or 10 gallons of gasoline. The big greenish tank, the one nearest the driveshaft, was added by Alternate Fuel Technologies in Huntington Beach, California, after I got the van (it was put where the catalytic converter and muffler usually are, so the exhaust system had to be shifted to the right side of the driveshaft). All together, the four tanks store natural gas equivalent to about 16 or 17 gallons of gasoline--this is in a vehicle that comes stock with a 22-gallon gasoline tank and optionally with a 35-gallon tank, so I definitely see a reduction in range between fill-ups compared to an ordinary van! However, this is not enough to prevent me from taking interstate trips; I've driven from Los Angeles, California to Phoenix, Arizona and back several times since 1997, with no problems, and I drove Clean Across America And Back in August 1998 (a round trip between Los Angeles and Portland, Maine). When put into airport-shuttle service, as is common, these vans often have a huge extra tank mounted inside the passenger compartment for extra range, behind the rearmost seat; however, I decided I wanted to be able to remove the seats and use the entire interior to carry large items (like motorcycles and furniture), so my van is completely stock on the inside.
This is not an aftermarket conversion; this is the first natural-gas-powered vehicle series-produced by an automaker. 1993 was the first model year of volume production; Chrysler had trouble obtaining fuel tanks and stopped producing CNG vans after the 1996 model year, but they are back since the 1999 model year. In the meantime, Ford, which began producing the first factory CNG-powered car (the Crown Victoria) in the 1996 model year, started making CNG vans too, and both Ford and General Motors have CNG pickups available (though Ford offers both bi-fuel and dedicated models, while GM only makes bi-fuel versions). And starting with the 1998 model year, Honda is offering a CNG-powered Civic GX that is the cleanest internal-combustion-engine vehicle ever tested by the EPA.
Actually, the very first factory-warrantied natural-gas-powered vehicle sold was the Chevrolet/GM C2500 pickup, in a demo program during the 1992 and 1993 model years. This was upfitted by PAS, Inc. with a throttle-body injection system for natural gas (my van's sequential multi-point injection for natural gas was put in at the Dodge factory--I think). I had one of these pickups, a 1992 Chevrolet I named Penelope (which is why my van is Penelope II), which I bought new in November 1993 from a small number of 1992's that had remained unsold until then. Here's a picture that I took just before she was recalled in April 1994; I then bought Penelope II (slightly used by an Arizona natural-gas utility company) in February 1995.
"Wait a minute--recalled??" Doesn't that sound like it gives the lie to my claims about the safety of CNG vehicles? Well, obviously I don't think so--after all, I went out and bought another one! Two trucks each had one of their fuel tanks rupture; there were some minor injuries to the drivers, but no fires. It turned out that "acidic fluids" had dripped from the bed of each pickup onto one of its three underbody tanks and weakened it to the point it could no longer withstand the fuel pressure inside it; the story I have heard from several sources (but which I am not equipped to confirm independently) is that the "acidic fluids" were there because the owners were carrying leaky old car batteries in the pickup beds for a recycling business! So the tank failures were hardly GM's fault, and a lot of people thought a recall was unnecessary (myself included--I felt like I was being asked to shoot my dog *snif*). However, this was right at the same time as the Great Saddle-Tank Scare, when a TV news magazine show "dramatized" a crash test by using model-rocket igniters to produce a satisfyingly telegenic fireball as a late-1980's GM pickup (with "saddle tanks", or gasoline tanks partly outside the frame rails) was struck from the side by a car. I suspect that GM decided they did not want to fight a two-front war, so they closed out the concerns about the small number (about 2500) of CNG pickups by recalling them and giving us our money back.
So, at the risk of boasting, I think I can claim to have "put my money where my mouth is"--except for the interruption between the two Penelopes, my main vehicle has been an alternative-fueled vehicle since November 1993, and I have become firmly convinced of their practicality. Of course, this is easiest in Southern California, where I live, because that area has the highest density of CNG refueling stations in the country; however, the number is growing all the time, and there are many cities across the country--maybe where you live--where alternative fueling stations are becoming downright common. When I began driving on CNG in 1993, I had to go 35 miles round trip from my apartment to refuel; I gambled that, with patience, the number of refueling stations would increase (that's why I chose the name Penelope for my CNG vehicles--the wife of Ulysses was an archetype of patience; of course, I was also a fan of the Wacky Racers when I was a kid!), and it's paid off--from 1995 to 1999 my main refueling station was less than five miles from my apartment, and since 1997 there's been one less than two miles from my job. I hope you will consider taking a similar gamble when you get your next car or truck.
Note added 2 September 2003: I've been driving CNG vehicles for almost a decade now, and they have served me well; however, my daily commute to and from work is only seven miles round trip, and unless I need to carry something besides myself and a few pounds of books and gear, it's just wasteful to haul two tons of metal along with me. For this reason I have been looking at electric mopeds for some years, but they have always been too pricey, $2500 and up--until now. A company called eGO Vehicles has been making a 20 MPH scooter with 20 miles of range per charge for a couple of years now, priced at $1399, and recently they offered a few refurbished factory and demo models (from the previous year) for half price. My wife and I calculated that one of these would pay for itself in two or three years at this price, so I grabbed one; after being interested in electric vehicles since 1990 when the Impact prototype (which later evolved into the General Motors EV1) was introduced, and after years of disappointment that GM never actually would sell me an EV1, I am finally able to commute using electricity! One of these could pay for itself even more quickly for you, if you're paying the kind of gasoline prices shown in the picture instead of 25%-50% less for CNG...
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new 4 July 1998, revised 13 April 2004
