The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Detroit is switching to natural gas. Two of the Big Three automakers are announcing plans to build production-line pickup trucks that will run on natural gas as well as gasoline. The world’s largest automaker, GM, will do so today:
General Motors Co. on Monday plans to disclose it will offer bi-fuel Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 2500 pickups in the fourth quarter. The trucks will be built by GM and sent to a supplier that will retrofit them to use compressed natural-gas tanks.
Chrysler will begin building their bi-fuel pickup trucks even sooner:
Chrysler Group LLC plans to disclose it will build the first production-line pickup truck powered by natural gas. The auto maker is promising to build at least 2,000 heavy-duty Ram bi-fuel trucks that run on a combination of compressed natural gas and gasoline starting in June.
The interest in natural-gas vehicles comes as gasoline prices are on the rise again and support for using domestic natural gas to replace oil is gaining support. After years of promoting electric cars, President Obama signaled a change in the administration when he said during his January State of the Union speech the nation needs to explore all alternative energy sources.
“We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years,” Mr. Obama said in his speech. “My administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy. Experts believe this will support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.”
Read the complete article HERE.