Honda Civic Goes All Natural

Torrance, Calif. 10/19/2006 -- American Honda Motor *** Inc., last week announced the availability of the 2007 Honda Civic GX for the New York State market. The Civic GX will be on sale at five Honda dealers on Long Island and fourteen additional dealers throughout the state, marking the first time the Civic GX is available for retail sale outside of California. The Civic GX is the only dedicated natural gas-powered passenger car available to retail customers in the United States.

The 2007 Civic GX, which achieves an EPA estimated city/highway fuel economy of 28/39 miles per gasoline-gallon equivalent, carries an MSRP of $24,590. Currently natural gas is approximately 30 percent less expensive than gasoline when purchased at a refueling station, and approximately 50 percent cheaper than gasoline when supplied by a 'Phill', the convenient natural gas home refueling appliance.

2007 Civic GX buyers are eligible for a Federal tax credit of $4,000 for the car and an additional $1,000 in tax credits for the purchase and installation of 'Phill'. Both GX and Phill benefit from the federal tax credits enacted January 1, 2006, for clean alternative fuel vehicles and fueling infrastructure. Natural gas fuel use as an alternative to petroleum can help promote air quality goals and is a lower-cost alternative to gasoline. Primarily a domestically produced fuel, its price has historically tracked below that of petroleum fuels.

With near-zero emissions, the GX was proclaimed the "Cleanest internal combustion engine ever tested" by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) when introduced in 1998, and today is the only vehicle certified by EPA to meet both Federal Tier 2-Bin2 and Inherently Low Emission Vehicle (ILEV) zero evaporative emissions certification standards. GX meets these strict emission standards, as natural gas is inherently a clean burning fuel.

Equipped standard with a 5-speed automatic transmission, the 1.8-liter, 4-cylinder engine delivers 113 horsepower and 109 ft-lbs of torque, both an increase of more than 10 percent versus the previous generation. The Civic GX offers the same standard safety features that have earned Civic the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's "Top Safety Pick - Gold" Award. Standard safety features include dual front airbags, side curtain airbags, driver's side impact airbag, front passenger's side impact airbag, ABS and Honda's Advanced Compatibility Engineering Body structure TM (ACE TM).

Phill - the home refueling appliance manufactured by FuelMaker Corporation, provides Civic GX owners a convenient and affordable method of refueling at home. Phill can be mounted to a garage wall, either indoors or outdoors, and allows the GX to refuel overnight directly from a homeowner's existing natural gas supply line.

The natural gas-powered Civic GX is part of Honda's energy strategy to offer the best available technology for the reduction of air pollution and petroleum dependence and serves as an enabling technology for hydrogen fuel cell cars in the future. The 2007 Civic GX will be assembled in East Liberty, Ohio. Destination and handling charges for all 2007 Honda vehicles are $595.

Our take? The variety of environmentally-friendly vehicles continue to grow. But despite Phill, owners of the GX will need to be aware of their fuel more so than hybrid owners since there are limited number of sources offering natural gas for vehicle fuel.


Via Honda Motor Co.