What you see here is Chevy’s newly-available, 4-tank CNG commercial van.  This was news last year, but despite that, this is the first one we’d seen “in the flesh”.  So, when one of GM’s marketing reps realized we were ignoring the ZL1 Camaro launch (by which time we had – ahem – already gotten the hood up, pulled back the vinyl that was sealing off the filler cap, opened the back of the van, etc.) we asked questions.

Here are a few of the things we learned (in no particular order).

For my part, I was most surprised by how invisible the whole system was.  Save for the CNG fuel nozzle and a decal advertising Natural Drive under the hood (the aftermarket company that GM contracts the CNG fuel system assembly/installation to) there was absolutely nothing to indicate that this van produced nearly zero emissions while helping to reduce dependency on foreign oil … which, perhaps, is exactly what it will take to sell to the neophobic fleet market.

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Sources:  2011 Chicago Auto Show, GM.



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