• USA Today , Wednesday, September 24, 2008 10:30 AM

Toyota will display a concept version of a compressed natural gas-electric hybrid Camry at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. Several automakers, including Toyota, offered CNG-powered vehicles nearly a decade ago but quit when interest flagged. CNG-powered vehicles usually have less range than gas-powered vehicles and less trunk space because of the large fuel tanks.

The announcement comes amid splashy, big-budget ad campaigns that have attempted to move natural gas off the energy back burner. Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens has touted natural gas and wind power as the centerpieces of his "Pickens Plan" for energy independence. And Chesapeake Energy, one of the nation's largest natural-gas producers, has ads promoting CNG.

Honda is currently the only maker now of a CNG-powered car. It says high gasoline prices have spurred enough interest that its CNG-powered Civic GX has a waiting list of several months and it plans to double production to 2,000 next year. The Civic GX costs $25,090, nearly $7,000 more than the gasoline equivalent.

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