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Soon you might fill up your car's fuel tank right in your own garage. And the fuel won't be gasoline, but natural gas. So you can smell something new is in the air.

Lost in the shuffle in the media hype about alternative vehicle fuels is natural gas. But natural gas burns so clean and emission-free that the Environmental Protection Agency has labeled the U.S.-made Honda Civic GX the "cleanest internal combustion engine-powered vehicle ever tested." With that as the backdrop, American Honda and a company called FuelMaker Corporation are ready to market an affordable appliance that will allow consumers to refuel natural gas vehicles at home.

The popularity of natural gas-powered vehicles is gaining momentum as more states are expected to enact legislation to permit such vehicles in carpool lanes with just a single occupant. So Honda and FuelMaker are planning to capitalize on that by starting retail sales of the "Phill" refueling appliance and Civic GX natural gas vehicle beginning in California in spring 2005. The Civic GX, now in its seventh year of sales in the U.S., has to this point been marketed only to fleets.

Phill will cost approximately $2,000, but the two companies are looking for some government tax incentives for consumers to spur in-home installations. Many see the biggest obstacle to broader acceptance of natural gas vehicles is the limited availability of refueling stations. Phill will change that and allow you to conveniently fill up at home.

© Studio One Networks

Related Links:

• Drivers.com article: Diesel to natural gas conversion
• Drivers.com -- articles and links on Fuel
• Drivers.com article: Fuel, politics, and your car

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