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The 2015 Chevy Impala natural gas-assisted, gasoline hybrid has a range of about 545 miles. Which is a good thing because that\u2019s how far you may need to drive to find a natural gas filling station.<\/p>\n
The closest one to my Oakland County home was 38 miles away at a DTE Energy depot on French Drive by Detroit City Airport. It\u2019s not a neighborhood I would advise the missus to drive to every day. Take a right at Graffiti and Empty-Lot-With-Tall-Grass, then it\u2019s the first right past the empty building with \u201cFILTHY FRESH\u201d spray-painted on the side.<\/p>\n
The security guard behind the barbed-wire fence will let you in.<\/p>\n
But you can fuel it at home if yours is one of 50 percent of U.S. residences powered by natural gas. That makes natural-gas hybrids a viable competitor to battery-powered electric vehicles for convenience.<\/p>\n
Plug-in electric hybrid or natural-gas hybrid? Chevy offers both, so I compared the 2016 Chevy Volt to the Impala to answer which is the King of Convenience.<\/p>\n
Greenies say the future has a plug and have touted electric vehicles for their alleged zero CO2 emissions. The truth is more complicated. Lithium-ion batteries\u00a0take an enormous amount of energy<\/a>\u00a0to produce, contain toxins and get their juice from a carbon-based energy grid. Recent academic studies have found that \u2014 over the life-cycle of an EV in the coal-powered Midwest \u2014\u00a0it would actually increase CO2 emissions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Just as utilities seeking to affordably reduce their carbon footprint have turned to natural gas, so have automakers looked at compressed natural gas as an alternative. Their carbon dioxide emissions are 75 percent of gasoline-powered equivalents. Thanks to America\u2019s fracking boom, the cost of natural gas plummeted in recent years, leading to GM\u2019s ambitious plans for the Impala \u2014 only the second compressed natural gas vehicle on the market after Honda\u2019s Civic.<\/p>\n But fracking also benefited the oil market, meaning my CNG Impala cost $2.64 to refill down by the \u201cFILTHY FRESH\u201d in November when gas prices were just $1.89 at my local BP station (now $1.59). Ouch. But what if I could fill up at home?<\/p>\n The convenience of a garage-installed natural gas station \u2014\u00a0called The Phill<\/a>\u00a0by BRC Fuelmaker \u2014 would set me back $5,500. Double ouch. After that heavy lift, refilling the Impala\u2019s 7.8-gallon natural gas tank is a bargain at about 92 cents a gallon from home \u2014 if you\u2019re patient. At a half-gallon an hour, she\u2019ll take 16 hours to feed.<\/p>\n With residential rates a mere 8 cents per kilowatt hour (just 3.7 kWh at night), the Volt has the CNG beat on cost, if not convenience. My Volt tester took a CNG-like 13 hours to recharge on a standard 110-volt outlet at a cost of about a buck. Forget to plug in one night when your arms were full of bags? Both Chevys will take half a day to top off when you realize you left them unfueled next morning (happily, gasoline backup is always ready).<\/p>\n Want to cut that in half? DTE Energy says you can buy a $500 (plus $2,000 installation) 240-volt charger for the Volt.<\/p>\n But don\u2019t be so sure Volt will get its advertised 53 miles on a charge in Michigan winter. I got 30 mpg around town. Sure, I was lead-footing it (stomping Corvettes\u00a0<\/a>out of stoplights with instant electric torque is addicting). But even in good-boy, hyper-miling mode, I managed just 37 mpg.<\/p>\n