When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Or at least, so goes the quip usually attributed to Will Rogers. Honda Motor Corp. seems to be following that old adage, announcing last month that it would discontinue its CNG-fueled Civic. The company says it simply didn’t see the market demand justify the continued production of what was one of the only dedicated natural gas-fueled consumer vehicle out there.

“Honda has promoted CNG-powered vehicles for many years,” Honda Automobile Division Executive Vice President John Mendel wrote in a statement. “For most of the past 15 years we have been the only automaker with a dedicated CNG vehicle. Despite this commitment, the infrastructure for natural gas refueling and consumer demand remains a challenge.”

While Honda has proclaimed the sunset on its CNG Civic, it will still continue to service existing vehicles.

The CNG Civic was introduced in 1998, primarily as a fleet vehicle, spokeswoman Angie Nucci told DownstreamBusiness.com. It was then sold retail in a limited number of states in 2005. In 2011, sales were expanded to more than 30 states, but it just didn’t catch on. Nucci said that since its introduction, about 18,000 vehicles have been sold.

To give a sense of perspective, Honda reported that it sold about 1.76 million automobiles in North America last fiscal year (FY). It sold about 1.73 million cars and trucks in FY-2013. Compared to the little more than 1,000 CNG vehicles sold on average every year since 1998, those large numbers give some justification to Honda’s decision. In fact, even against just American Honda’s total vehicle sales for the month of May, CNG vehicle sales for the past 17 years seem insignificant. If compared, all of the purchased CNG Civics could theoretically account for less than 12% of that single month’s sales.

Nucci added that while low sales were the primary factor, the lack of infrastructure, fueling options and government support did not help things, either.

“So our decision was based on a variety of factors but primarily on very limited market demand and support for CNG,” Nucci said.

Instead of pursuing CNG further, Honda will turn to electric vehicles. Mendel in his statement said that the company will pursue two- and three-motor hybrid systems as well as electric vehicles.

“We are also working to advance electrified vehicles to meet the diverse needs and wants of environmentally conscious customers,” he said. “We are developing an entirely new generation of vehicles starting from the introduction in 2016 of our next-generation fuel cell vehicle. This will be followed by an all-new battery electric model and the all-new plug-in hybrid model.”

Nucci thinks that these new vehicles will present easier refueling/recharging scenarios in addition to sporting longer ranges and garnering more collective support from the industry. She hopes this will help Honda avoid the pitfall of going CNG alone. Since Honda was the only company supporting an all-natural gas consumer vehicle for so long, it found it difficult to build up the necessary infrastructure.

“Honda was the only manufacturer of a dedicated CNG vehicle, so that made things a little bit harder, being the only game in town.”

The CNG Civic was built at Honda’s plant in Greensburg, Ind. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the 2015 CNG Civic has a combined fuel economy of 31 miles per gallon (mpg). That amount is less than all other 2015 iterations of the Civic: the traditional gasoline-fueled Civic gets 33 mpg; the Civic HF, 35 mpg; and the hybrid Civic gets 45 mpg.

Because of the greater space needed to contain a less energy-dense fuel, the CNG Civic also only had a range of about 193 miles, less than half of the standard gasoline-fueled version. The suggested retail price for the CNG Civic ran between about $26,740 to $29,390, significantly more than the standard Civic or Civic HF, which ran at $18,290 to $24,590 and $20,040, respectively. However, while the CNG Civic may have cost more and had a shorter range per tank of fuel, it held an advantage versus the other Civics in that annual fuel costs were often hundreds of dollars less.

All, despite their different fuels, run 1.8-liter, 4-cylinder engines.

When asked if Honda would be pursuing CNG for other larger, commercial fleets, Nucci said, “At this time, we don’t have any plans to announce, but we’re always researching various markets.”