DANA POINT : City’s Test Car Is a Gas--Naturally

It was ballyhooed Monday as “the car of the future”: a natural gas-powered vehicle, or NGV, donated to the city of Dana Point by a utility company.

As part of an experimental program, the specially equipped 1991 Buick LeSabre, reputed to reduce polluting exhausts by 90%, will be test-driven this spring by a group of Dana Point senior-citizen volunteers who work with the Sheriff’s Department.

Mayor Mike Eggers called the joint venture with Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric a “historic time.”

“Dana Point always likes to be first in everything,” Eggers told a crowd of about 100 during an unveiling ceremony Monday at City Hall. “Well, this is the first test of a low-polluting natural gas vehicle by a city.”

The most obvious difference in natural gas and the gasoline that powers conventional vehicles is that NGV fuel is actually a gas, not a liquid, said Harold Levin, SDG&E;’s manager for alternative fuels. The San Diego-based utility provided the car.

“It’s exactly like the stuff that you use in your home,” Levin said. “It’s colorless and odorless. Gas companies actually add an odor to the gas in your home lines so it is more easily detectable and safer.”

The fuel will soon be slightly cheaper than conventional unleaded gasoline, gas company officials said. Once Southern California Gas Co. installs its projected 51 fueling stations throughout Southern and Central California by the end of 1993, the estimated cost per gallon will be 77 cents, with an estimated 18 miles per gallon, said spokeswoman Denise King.

The cost of the cars, however, will run between $2,000 to $4,000 more than gasoline-powered vehicles, King said. All three major American car makers are now producing NGVs, and a Dodge van, a GMC truck and a Ford Crown Victoria powered by natural gas should be available for purchase by summer, she added.

The gas company provided a $3,000, Canadian-made portable fueling unit that was installed in the City Hall parking lot and taps into the nearby gas lines to fill up the NGV. At some point, consumers will be able to buy similar filling units for their residences, King said.

Filling the NGV’s two tanks with the gas can take overnight, but it’s no more difficult than filling any other car, said Carroll Cox, a member of the Dana Point VIPS--Volunteer Interest Program for Seniors, who will be using the vehicle.

“There’s no trick to it at all, really,” Cox said.