Edmunds Inside Line reports, "Toyota is ready to dip its toe back into the compressed-natural-gas vehicle market after a shaky start back in 1999. The Japanese automaker on Wednesday confirmed that it will display a compressed-natural-gas Toyota Camry Hybrid concept at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show in November."

The only natural gas-powered car currently for sale in U.S. showroom is the Honda Civic GX.

Autoblog Green adds, "Back in 1999, Californians were able to get a Camry that ran on CNG, but without the hybrid part of the powertrain. Toyota's Irv Miller said that this new concept shows that Toyota is serious about pushing CNG in the future.

The Detroit News explains, "Toyota has not decided whether to market such a vehicle, noting that there were only around 1,000 compressed natural gas refueling stations in the United States."  But public focus on natural gas as an automotive fuel is increasing in the United States, "reflecting recent upward revisions in U.S. natural gas reserves," and a campaign led by energy investor T. Boone Pickens asking automakers to develop natural gas-powered cars so that liquid petroleum supplies can be stretched further.

Bloomberg notes, "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rates [natural gas] the lowest in tailpipe exhaust among vehicles with internal-combustion engines."  But Toyota's CNG efforts are just one part of a larger push toward alternative energy in the automotive sector.  "Toyota plans to test lithium-ion plug-in Prius cars next year and Japanese rival Honda Motor Co. has begun leasing fuel-cell sedans to drivers in Los Angeles. General Motors Corp. aims to sell a battery-powered Volt by 2010."

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