Portland, Oregon - Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) USA has announced that it will display a compressed natural gas (CNG) Camry Hybrid concept vehicle at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. The company made the announcement at its Sustainable Mobility Seminar in Oregon.

“With the combination of plentiful long-term supplies in North America, improved and more efficient recovery methods, favourable pricing and clean-burn/low emissions characteristics, CNG has become a prime energy source for the future,” said Irv Miller, group vice president, TMS Corporate Communications. “With this concept, we are confirming our interest in using CNG within our broad and comprehensive R&D scope.”

In 1999, Toyota marketed a CNG-powered four-cylinder Camry to fleet customers in California. As gasoline was relatively inexpensive, customers did not want a vehicle that required special refuelling techniques and a limited refuelling infrastructure, and the program was discontinued a year later. Currently, there are only about 1,000 CNG refuelling stations in the U.S., less than half of them open to the public. “Natural gas and an expanded retail-friendly CNG infrastructure could be seen as a model for future hydrogen infrastructure,” Miller said.