"Honda Says Civic Move Won't Impact Production Boost for Natural Gas Civic GX " Green Car Advisor

Honda Says Civic Move Won't Impact Production Boost for Natural Gas Civic GX

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Honda Motor Co. has begun shifting production of its 4-door Civic from its East Liberty, Ohio, plant to its new assembly facility (right) in Greensburg, Indiana.

That's of interest because one of the models in the 4-door line is the natural gas powered Honda Civic GX , and there have been a few reports circulating that the move will disrupt supplies of the very green GX at a time the limited-production car is in high demand.

The GX is made in batches throughout the year and it probably is true that the move will delay a batch or two - we say "probably" because while a spokesman for Honda's sales and marketing unit in California says that's so, the always-secretive carmaker's manufacturing spokesman in Ohio won't discuss production scheduling.

But we are assured by Honda that even if the regular flow of the natural gas vehicles to the 114 Honda dealers authorized to sell them is momentarily interrupted, the total output for the 2009 model year won't be affected.

It's a bit of a tempest in a teapot, as Honda only plans to make 2,000 GX models for the year - but it's important to the growing number of consumers who see in the car a reasonable alternative to a gasoline-burner that is cleaner and can save them money.

Natural gas has about 30 percent less carbon content that gasoline and about 95 percent fewer smog-causing emissions. Natural gas also is cheaper (for now at least) than gasoline -- by $2 a gallon or more with at-home fuel systems that compress and pump natural gas from the residential supply.

The 2,000 GX models for the 2009 model year, by the way, is up from 1,000 GXs in the '08 model year - and Honda says it is considering doubling production again, to as many as 4,000 vehicles in 2010, if demand is still there.

Meantime, Honda spokesman Chris Martin says that most of the 2009 model year run of GXs has been spoken for by dealers. That doesn't mean they've all be pre-sold to individual customers, just that the dealers have told Honda they can sell all they can get. Martin also said that many GX dealers say they've got customer waiting lists.

Again, we're talking 114 dealers out of 1,500, and 2,000 Civic GX models out of the Indiana plant's capacity of 200,000 Civic sedans a year.

Honda is the only carmaker in the U.S. still selling a factory-built natural gas car, and until gasoline prices began soaring skyward faster than a helium balloon that's lost its tether, most buyers were private companies and government agencies required by various regional and federal rules to have alternative fuel vehicles in their fleets.

Last year was the first time since the GX was introduced in 1998 that sales to retail customers outstripped fleet sales, a situation likely to continue going forward.

Drawbacks to the GX include its cost - before federal and local clean car tax credits and incentives it runs about $7,000 more than the similarly equipped Civic LX sedan with a conventional gasoline engine - and limited range of about 240 miles per 8-gallon tank of compressed natural gas.

But the biggest block is the lack of fuel. There's plenty around, but most of the pumps are private and not available to the general motoring public.

So Honda sells the GX in many states to fleets that use the private pumps, but has only made the car available on dealers' retail lots in California and New York, states with plenty of public CNG pumps in their metropolitan areas.

That could change next year - the company is eyeing both Utah and Oklahoma, states where CNG fuel is heavily subsidized -- for added retail sales.

Martin also points out that the automaker can't and doesn't want to stop any dealer who sells the GX from selling it to retail buyers, even if the store is only set up for fleet sales.

Wider sales of home fueling units could also help boost retail demand for the car.

Honda recently sold its interest in FuelMaker Corp. , one of the biggest CNG home fuel pump manufacturers, to Clean Energy Fuels Corp ., the nation's biggest retailer of CNG fuel, and Clean energy says it wants to promote home fueling.

(CNG's co-founder is former oilman T. Boone Pickens, who now is promoting natural gas as the quickest way for the country to kick its crude oil habit).