Special Car, auto, cars, vehicles

The first alternative-fuel car of the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show has already been announced; Toyota will combine natural-gas and hybrid power in its CNG (compressed natural gas) Camry hybrid concept. (Camry SE shown.)

While natural-gas cars get roughly equivalent fuel economy as those powered by gasoline, the key difference is that emissions are cleaner. Plus, natural gas is clean-burning and in abundant supply in North America. However, tanks to hold natural gas are very large and hold relatively little fuel. Thus CNG-fueled cars tend to have a fairly modest driving range. And with only about 500 CNG stations nationwide open to consumers, the short range is a big problem. The hybrid system helps alleviate that somewhat. Our gasoline-powered Camry Hybrid had a range of 600 miles, so if the CNG version has conservatively half the range (roughly the same relationship of the Honda Civic Hybrid compared to the Civic CNG), it would be close to that in most gasoline cars.

In our testing of a gasoline-powered Camry Hybrid, we noted its relatively small trunk, worsened by constrained access resulting from the hybrid-battery cooling systems. With a large CNG tank, the trunk may be tiny. We’ll keep you posted when we see the car next month at the L.A. Auto Show.

For now, the CNG Camry Hybrid is a concept car; Toyota announced no plans to build more of them.

Look for live, daily coverage of the Los Angeles Auto Show starting November 19th.