At today’s Los Angeles Auto Show, Toyota unveiled a compressed natural gas version of the Camry Hybrid. Toyota says that it is looking into the production viability of a CNG-powered production vehicle as a way to ween automakers off of foreign oil as more than 99 percent of the natural gas consumed in the United States comes from North America.
Toyota installed a pair of CNG tanks in the trunk of a standard Camry Hybrid and replaced the gasoline fuel system with a CNG system. Unlike a CNG-fueled Camry that was sold in limited volume to fleet customers in the early 1990s, the Camry Hybrid CNG unveiled today utilizes a 2.4 liter four-cylinder CNG-fueled engine and a hybrid powertrain (electric motor and generator).
Toyota says that the two tanks on the concept are Lincoln composite Type 4 tanks wrapped in carbon fiber and featuring plastic liners. They have a maximum psi of 3,600, the equivalent of eight gallons of regular gasoline.
The Camry Hybrid CNG, which also features a more aerodynamic exterior, has a range around 250 miles.
