2015 Chevy Impala to Offer CNG-capable Powertrain

It only took 40 years after the OPEC oil embargo of 1973, but a U.S. automaker will soon be building a bi-fuel production car for retail customers, and it’s going to be the 2015 Chevrolet Impala. In fact, the car was introduced at the recent “Securing America’s Energy Future” event in Washington, D.C., specifically to help mark that major turning point in the automotive world, which occurred four decades ago this month. That’s when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries began tightening control over petroleum bound for the United States, causing high gas prices and shortages, and also sparking a push for more fuel-efficient vehicles that would help make the country less reliant on foreign sources of oil.

All else being equal, cars and trucks that can run on compressed natural gas (CNG) would seem to provide some help, since not only does the United States have plenty of its own natural gas reserves, but the fuel itself burns cleaner than gasoline; GM points to data from the California Air Resources Board that indicates vehicles running on CNG produce about 20 percent fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than comparable gas-powered models.

Yet while the four domestic truck brands (Chevrolet, Ford, GMC and Ram) provide bi-fuel models that can run on both gasoline or CNG, with varying amounts of factory support, the only OEM-manufactured car that’s currently on sale to retail customers in the U.S. is the Honda Civic Natural Gas. And Honda has sold about 1,715 so far this year, representing an increase of 105.1 percent over the first nine months of 2012.

The bi-fuel 2015 Chevy Impala, however, will see even more limited production than that, at least at first; GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson, who spoke and introduced the car at the non-partisan symposium, noted that “selling 750 to 1,000 units in the first model year would be a home run,” primarily because the growing CNG infrastructure needs to grow even more quickly.

Actually, Akerson made a number of interesting comments at the event, as reported on the next page.

Bi-fuel 2015 Chevy Impala: Setting the Stage

Based on Akerson’s prepared remarks at the Securing America’s Energy Future program, GM will be using a two-pronged approach to support CNG use with the 2015 Chevrolet Impala. First, Akerson calls for “government, industry, environment and labor groups to work together” to develop the country’s CNG infrastructure further; but Chevy also is designing the CNG Impala to meet the current situation by building it with two fuel tanks. One will hold enough CNG to provide about 150 miles of driving range, while a tank for gasoline will deliver another 350 miles of travel. The 2015 Chevy Impala will switch seamlessly between the two as necessary.

Then, beyond the bi-fuel Impala, Akerson also boasted that as a result of GM’s overall efficiency leadership, “Over their service lives, our 2011 through 2017 model-year vehicles alone will reduce our national fuel consumption by about 12 billion gallons.

“This will offset almost a full year of crude oil imports from the Persian Gulf.”

In terms of GM’s international manufacturing plants and other sites, Akerson said: “By saving energy and increasing use of renewable energy sources, our global facilities achieved a 28 percent reduction in CO2 emissions on a per-vehicle-produced basis between 2005 and 2010… and we are on the way to achieving an incremental 20 percent reduction by 2020.”

Moving ahead, Akerson appealed for ongoing investment for both developing new technologies and enhancing current ones, a continued commitment to conservation, and, specifically, “fully and safely exploiting our shale gas reserves.”

Concluded Akerson: “I personally believe that all of these elements must be enshrined in a national, market-based. consumer-focused energy policy that has straightforward goals: Affordable energy with certainty of availability... cleaner air and water... lower CO2 emissions... a significantly lower trade deficit... and balanced budgets.”