Does the car drive as well as a gasoline powered car?
That would depend on the car and how it was designed. Natural gas has some performance advantages over gasoline, namely the octane level. The octane rating of a fuel is a measure of how resistant it is to preignition, or “knocking”. However, the energy content you get is somewhat less than gasoline. A well designed CNG engine takes advantage of the increased octane level by increasing compression and advancing the spark. This compensates somewhat for the loss of power incurred by the decreased energy content of the fuel. Most vehicles perform adequately, but you will see some decrease in horsepower when compared to the equivalent gasoline powered vehicles. This is also the reason that a “dual fuel” vehicle (i.e. one that can switch between gasoline and CNG) does not perform as well as a dedicated CNG vehicle since the engine can’t be completely optimized for natural gas.
