Let’s begin here: This is an excellent car, made all the better since it produces near-zero tailpipe emissions and runs on natural gas, a domestically-sourced alternative fuel. That should get the attention of a lot of drivers out there. It certainly gets ours.
The Honda Civic Natural Gas – Green Car Journal’s 2012 Green Car of the Year® – is part of our long-term test fleet and continues to impress. Based on Honda’s best-selling Civic compact sedan that was completely redesigned for 2012, the compressed natural gas (CNG) version is mainstream-stylish, comfortable, and fuel efficient.
We’ve been intrigued by Honda’s Civic natural gas program since this vehicle began serial production at the automaker’s Ohio assembly plant in 1998. It is a pretty amazing car, built alongside its conventionally powered cousins on the same line, but with the unique components that enable it to operate on clean natural gas – a high-compression engine with hardened valves and other natural gas-specific hardware, special lines and fittings, a pressure vessel instead of a gas tank, and so on. It may be equipped with different components, but in the end the natural gas variant drives like the gasoline Civics that leave the plant.
This is a good thing since ‘transparency’ is important. While most drivers may want more environmentally-conscious vehicles, they tend to also want ones that are familiar in most ways. The 2012 Civic Natural Gas model we’ve been driving will, over time, show us how well Honda has accomplished this job.
Clearly, there are some important distinctions. First, no gasoline is burned. Instead, compressed natural gas (CNG) – the cleanest burning fossil fuel and one found in abundance in the U.S. – fuels this car, and at about a buck less per gallon equivalent than gasoline. It runs so cleanly the Civic Natural Gas is rated by EPA as the cleanest internal combustion engine vehicle on the market.
Refueling is done with a compression fitting rather than a nozzle, with a sealed system dispensing gaseous fuel from a familiar-looking pump. Our fueling experiences at the local JB Dewar fueling station in San Luis Obispo, California, which offers the only public access CNG pumps in town, are straightforward and take less than five minutes.
The natural gas variant’s 1.8-liter engine delivers 110 horsepower – 30 less horsepower than the gasoline version – although the difference isn’t really noticeable during the daily drive. Several thousand miles behind the wheel bear this out. Engaging the ECON function helps mpg but does diminish throttle response, so entering interstates may be best done with ECON off. With ECON on or off, though, the Civic Natural Gas provides the kind of solid driving experience we can appreciate.
Driving on an alternative fuel brings its own distinct advantages. But what about fuel economy? We’ve averaged better than 36 highway mpg on a recent tank with another tank in city driving averaging 26 mpg. This was done in ECON mode, with Honda’s ECO Assist system engaged to modify engine operation and other power-using systems to increase driving efficiency.
The Civic Natural Gas test car we’re driving offers an array of welcome features including Honda’s navigation system, which bumps the price up $1,500 from this model’s base MSRP of $26,155 to $27,655. We’ll continue to share our driving experience with this clean-running sedan in future posts.