Chrysler Plans to Build Natural Gas-Powered Pickups

As the world continues to search for alternative energy solutions, Chrysler Group LLC has taken a big step in the right direction, as they disclosed plans to unveil the world's first production-line heavy-duty pickup that is powered by natural gas.  It will run on a combination of gasoline and compressed natural gas.  General Motos Co. also plans to build a similar line of pickup trucks and plans on releasing the plans for their versions in the fourth quarter of this year.

The building of these trucks comes after all of the major auto makers met with the American Gas Association and the American Natural Gas Alliance, and were urged to follow this model of production.  With its partnership with Fiat and its new management that took over in 2009, Chrysler felt they were able to take on this task.  They were able to jump on this opportunity and begin testing right away.

Natural Gas explorer Apache Corp. has been pushing auto makers to do this for quite some time.  They have converted a quarter of their vehicles to natural gas, and they expect to convert many more soon.  Even the company's CEO drive a pickup that was was retrofitted to run on compressed natural gas (CNG).  Companies that produce these trucks on the factory floor would reduce costs and complexity, and could show significant profits.

The technology involved in the trucks is very interesting and could be potentially very efficient in saving energy and improving on the global footprint.  The Chrysler Ram that they developed can travel 255 miles on fuel before automatically switching to an eight-gallon gasoline tank for an additional 112 miles.  GM's pickup is expected to exceed 655 miles before having to make that switch.

This interested is sparked by high gas prices, and as they are rising even higher this technology is gaining more support.  Obama has also supported this initiative, as he is aware of the massive supply of natural gas American has, as well as the jobs developing this technology would create.

Right now this is simply a technology available for pickups, but they strive to apply this concept to other vehicles down the road.  In my opinion, right now the design is a little impractical, because of the fact that there are multiple natural gas tanks that would be build into the back of the pickup.  Despite that, this is the initial step in the right direction and I am confident that over time this design will be perfected.  Another huge issue with this idea, along with the other ideas for alternative fueling, is the inability to refuel.  There are less than 400 public CNG fueling stations and this poses a major problem not yet addressed by anyone.

All in all, this shows how much a change in power can affect a company.  Look at Chrysler six years ago and look at them today.  They're paving the way, and getting the first footprint in a potentially budding new industry.  They are changing their outlook and altering their product line.  If they perfect it, who knows, this could be their new big thing.