History
The Honda Civic GX first appeared in 1998 as a factory-modified Civic LX that had been designed to run exclusively on CNG (compressed natural gas). In 1998 the Civic GX cost $4500 more than a comparable Civic LX. The car looks and drives just like a contemporary Honda Civic LX, but does not run on gasoline. In 2001, the Civic GX was rated the cleanest-burning internal combustion engine in the world by the EPA.
The GX was first leased to the City of Los Angeles to be used by parking enforcement officers and other city employees as a live beta test. The GX follows the same model year design changes as the Civic LX model, until the model year 2001 when a CVT (continuously variable transmission) was introduced in place of the 4 speed automatic transmission. In the 2006 year model, the GX again was equipped with the automatic 5 speed transmission, which increased its mileage and extended its range to 250 miles.
In 1998 the GX was available for special order in some states to consumers (California and Colorado in particular).
In 2006, the Civic went through its greatest modification since its inception. All variants of the Civic were awarded the 2006 Motor Trend "Car of the Year" award. The 8th generation Civic remains unchanged from 2006 and is also available in the GX model. The GX is a very limited-availability car with fewer than a thousand units per year being produced by the factory.
In October 2006, the 2007 Civic GX became available in New York. In July 2009, the GX became available to the public in Utah. In April 2010 the GX became available to the public in Oklahoma. The CNG Civic in this market relates to favorable natural gas costs and the numerous high pressure filling stations. The promotion of CNG conversions by natural gas producers headquartered in Oklahoma provided incentive for Honda to market the Civic GX there. State of Oklahoma incentives are available and are also a factor that led United Parcel Service to convert part of their delivery truck fleet to CNG. Since December 2010, the GX is available for fleet sales in all 50 states. Retail sales were expanded to 35 states in the fall of 2011.
In 2008 Honda planned to expand annual production from 1,000 to 2,000 for 2009 model year, and doubled again to 4,000 for 2010 model year.
Since 2004 and up to 2011, Honda Civic GX has been rated first in the "Greenest Vehicle of the Year" list elaborated by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. For 2011, the GX classified ahead of the recently launched Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle Chevrolet Volt, and tied with the plug-in electric vehicle Nissan Leaf.
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