The 2012 Honda Natural Gas, which for the first time is nationally marketed and available in dealers throughout the United States, is the Green Car of the Year. The designated has been awarded yearly since 2005 at the Los Angeles Auto Show by the publication Green Car Journal.
The cleanest running internal combustion vehicle certified by the EPA, the redesigned 2012 Civic Natural Gas is the fifth generation of the alternative fuel vehicle and the only assembly-line produced natural gas passenger model manufactured for sale in the United States.
It runs on a clean fuel almost exclusively domestically sourced and priced about 30-50 percent less than gasoline.
While averaging 38 highway MPGe, the Honda Civic Natural Gas is an Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle and also features Eco Assist and a selectable ECON feature to further enhance the vehicle’s environmental efficiency. 
Along with fast-fills in about five minutes at stations offering natural gas, the Civic Natural Gas can be time-filled at home overnight with an available wall-mount refueling appliance from BRC Fuel Maker.
The $26,155 Civic Natural Gas can drive approximately 240 miles on a tankful of compressed natural gas, almost 2 1/2 times the range of a typical all-electric vehicle.
The Green Car of the Year jury, comprised of six environmental and automotive experts along with Green Car Journal editors, selected the 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas from a field that also included the Ford Focus Electric, Mitsubishi i, Toyota Prius v and Volkswagen Passat TDI. 
What do readers of the dev.theweeklydriver.com think of the 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas? Is the redesigned 2012 model an alternatiive fuel vehicle that the public will embrace?
Article Last Updated: November 21, 2011.
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A sports, travel and business journalist for more than 45 years, James has written the new car review column The Weekly Driver since 2004.
In addition to founding this site in 2004, James writes a Sunday automotive column for The San Jose Mercury and East Bay Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and monthly auto review and wellness columns for Gulfshore Business, a magazine in Southwest Florida.
An author and contributor to many newspapers, magazines and online publications, co-hosted The Weekly Driver Podcast from 2017 to 2024.
I drive one at work. It’s a great car with plenty of pep. Love the fact that it’s truly zero emissions. Would love to own one with the filling station in my garage. My only issue is price. At $26K for the car plus another $k for the garage set-up. I wonder about the payback.
Great car! The price need not be that high however. Many cars can be converted to natural gas. Larger vehicles do not suffer so much from losing storage space for the CNG (compressed natural gas.) America is way behind in offering natural gas vehicles. All the big auto makers offer them in other nations, including GM, Ford, Fiat, etc.