GM's Pickup Truck CNG Conversion Costs $11,000
Compressed natural gas may cost the equivalent of $1.89 per gallon of gasoline, but retrofitting your GMC Sierra or Chevrolet Silverado will cost you $11,000 – and GM still think it will save you money.
According to GM, “…Customers could save $5,000 to $10,000 over a three-year period, depending on their driving habits.” How GM came to this number is a bit of a mystery, and we’re doing some digging to try and figure it out – because it’s a conversion, there is no EPA rating on it and data is difficult to find.
What we did notice was this little tidbit
$11,000 is a lot of cash for a business to tie up in one truck. In the absence of any data on how many miles it would take to break even (as well as the gas price number used to come up with it), it appears that GM is hoping to sway buyers with the prospect of unstable or rising fuel prices in the future. Emissions are almost certainly a secondary concern. It’s a wonder that GM didn’t promote the fact that CNG can legitimately claim to be a domestically sourced form of clean energy, seeing as they (barely) did back in March.
We contacted GM to try and get more information on the CNG conversion, and more specifically, how they came to their savings figures. Please leave all accusations of anti-GM bias, skulduggery and wrongdoing in the comments section.
EDIT: General Motors says that they calculated the savings based on a truck driving 24,000 miles a year, with gas prices at $4 per gallon and a CNG gallon equivalent of $2. GM’s Mike Jones, Product Manager for Fleet and Commercial Operations, thinks that there will continue to be “…a pretty significant price separation…” between gasoline and CNG.
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Does anybody here know if there are periodic testing/recertification requirements for the CNG tanks, much as there is for SCUBA tanks and compressed gas cylinders? That may affect the payback period slightly as well. I'm just thinking down the road about these CNG vehicles becoming more widely available on the used market, and if they are going to link vehicle registration to having a current tank cert.
The $11,000 price is steep but for people who drive 30,000 miles a year it would be a good option. If these big trucks average 15 mpg then that would be 2000 gal per year at $2 savings is $4000 a year. The return on investment is less than 3 years. The CNG option makes the resale value higher also. Look at the prices for a 2003 cng Silverado (the last full year GM made cng. The big thing is the fluctuation in fuel prices and the expectation for the future. There is a good site that explains this www.cngoco.com The problem isn't the price of the truck, it is the availability of places to but cng!