Posts Tagged ‘CAR’
New Federal Fuel Efficiency Standards Create 40% MPG Increase
Thursday, April 8th, 2010
New Fuel-Efficiency Standards approved by the Obama administration on April 1st are expected to reduce carbon emissions and save billions of dollars through greater fuel efficiency, according to the Detroit News.
Car and truck fuel efficiency will increase to 34.1 miles per gallon for a 40-percent boost in fuel economy, while greenhouse gases will be reduced by more than 30 percent by 2016.
NHTSA predicts that passenger cars will have to average 33.3 mpg in 2012, and 37.8 mpg in 2016. Light trucks, including SUVs, pickups and vans, will be required to average 25.4 mpg in 2012 and 28.8 mpg by 2016.
The government says the total value to society in reduced gasoline use and lower emissions will be about $240 billion.
Photo courtesy of Burning Image under the Creative Commons License
Tags: CAR, Federal Fuel Efficiency, MPG, NHSTA, Obama, standards, truck
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Fleet Safety Tips- Brake Failure
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Automotive Fleet has some new Fleet Safety tips for what to do if you or any of your drivers should experience brake failure unexpectedly. Pass these along to your drivers for safety’s sake!
If your brakes fail, do not panic. Simply follow these steps and find your way to a safe stop.
1.Pump the brake pedal rapidly and hard several times. This will often build up enough brake pressure to stop the car.
2. If #1 does not work, use the parking brake, but hold the brake release so you can let off the brake if the rear wheels lock and you begin to skid.
3. If the car still won’t stop, shift to a lower gear and look for a place to slow to a stop.
4. Make sure the vehicle is completely off the roadway, to the right if possible.
5. After the vehicle has stopped, wait for help. Do not try to drive the vehicle to a garage.
Photo courtesy of Kaptain Kobold under the Creative Commons License
Tags: Automotive Fleet, brake, CAR, fleet, lock, pump, safety tips, wheels
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AT&T Rewarded for CNG Program
Monday, October 12th, 2009
AT&T was recently recognized for its concentrated effort to encourage the use of natural gas in its fleet vehicles and educating the public on the benefits of alternative fuels. The telecommunications giant was one of five recipients of the National NGV Achievement Award at the Natural Gas Vehicle Conference-Summit in Long Beach, California.
After conducting a thorough investigation of natural gas vehicle options, benefits and availability, AT&T decided in 2008 to field test 25 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)-powered installation-and-service vans in several of its California locations. After deploying the units and evaluating their performance, AT&T announced in early 2009 that it would replace approximately 8,000 gasoline-powered service vehicles with vehicles powered by CNG over the next five years. The company plans to deploy 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles by 2019. BAF Technologies also announced June 30 it would help AT&T with the conversion to compressed natural gas. The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) estimates AT&T’s CNG vehicles will save 49 million gallons of gasoline and reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent over its 10-year implication. Ranked No.1 on Automotive Fleet’s Top 300 Commercial Fleets of 2009 based on size, AT&T operates 86,099 vehicles in its fleet.
Photo courtesy of ecastro under the Creative Commons License.
Tags: AT&T, Automotive Fleet, BAF Technologies, CAR, Center for Automotive Research, compressed natural gas, National NGV Achievement Award, Natural Gas Vehicle, Natural Gas Vehicle Conference-Summit
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New Study Shows Massive Impact of “Going Green” with Fleets
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
A new report by the Sustainable Transportation and Communities group at the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), a Michigan-based nonprofit research group, has examined the benefits of converting business fleets from gasoline to alternative-fuel vehicles such as compressed natural gas and gas-electric hybrids.
The main idea that the report supports is that turning corporate and other business vehicle fleets “green” provides the opportunity to put large numbers of more environmentally friendly vehicles onto the roads at once. The results of doing so would be both environmentally and economically positive.
Replacing 15,000 current gas-powered fleet vehicles with gas-powered and hybrid vehicles over a 10 year period could reduce gasoline consumption by more than 49 million gallons and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 211,000 metric tons in that period. Those reductions would be the same as simply removing 38,000 gasoline powered vehicles from the road for an entire year.
The CAR study used AT&T’s vehicle replacement program as a case study for their report. The AT&T program will also help to support an average of 1,000 vehicle manufacturing jobs each year until 2013.
“This example of corporate leadership, if followed by a significant portion of other public and private fleets, could have a huge impact on the release of greenhouse gases and significantly reduce the dependence on foreign oil,” said Kim Hill, director of the Sustainable Transportation and Communities group at CAR and the study’s lead. “For example, the emissions equal to 600,000 vehicles and the consumption of 15 million barrels of oil could be eliminated if 25% of the fleets had similar programs. In addition, demand for these types of advanced technology vehicles by the nation’s fleets could spur a growth in domestic green jobs.”
If the country is serious about increasing the number of fuel-efficient vehicles on the road in the near future, the fleets of America represent the best opportunity in the shortest timeframe, Hill said.
Photo courtesy of CLF under the Creative Commons License.
Tags: alternative-fuel vehicles, AT&T, CAR, Center for Automotive Research, gas-electric hybrids, Sustainable Transportation and Communitites group
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