CALGARY – A consortium of North American energy produces is planning to preview several natural-gas-powered vehicles later today at a Southern California Gas Co. facility, an event that it will follow-up with a broader public awareness campaign next month, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Among the vehicles being unveiled by America’s Natural Gas Alliance, a trade group representing two dozen North American oil and gas companies, include a BMW SUV and a Ford Mustang coupe retrofitted to run on compressed natural gas (CNG), efforts to stimulate interest in the use of natural gas in passenger cars. 

Converted vehicles from Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC and four other manufacturers are expected to be part of the Alliance's lineup.

Chrysler said it has no plans to make a passenger car conversion available. A BMW spokesman said, "We are not currently involved in natural-gas vehicles," and Ford said it isn't involved in the Alliance's project, nor does it plan to produce a conversion kit for Mustang.

The gas-industry group said the demonstration is designed to generate both consumer and automakers' interest in CNG-powered cars at a time when surging gas production has dramatically lowered prices.   

"We hope the excitement created by these vehicles encourages policy makers to take notice," said Anne Shen Smith, CEO of Southern California Gas.

Auto-industry analysts remain skeptical that manufacturers will rush into the market, no matter how low natural-gas prices fall.

"You can't dedicate a vehicle to this fuel until you've got natural-gas pumps almost as ubiquitous as gasoline pumps," said Phil Gott, senior director at IHS Automotive.

Gas company officials said major automakers are paying attention to these efforts and are readying conceptual models that may serve as trial balloons for future mass-market vehicles. "You will see over the next year or two, probably less than a year, some concepts of natural-gas [passenger] cars," said Eric Marsh, executive president at Encana.