The first half of 2012 set the record for the highest-ever fuel efficiency for new passenger vehicles entering the U.S. market, according to industry analysts Baum & Associates.
The country reached this record mile per gallon (MPG) level without relying on higher small car sales – a significant shift from a pattern going back to the 1973 Arab oil embargo where similar gains were achieved only when consumers moved to smaller vehicles in the face of higher gas prices.
From January to June of 2012, the average fuel efficiency of new passenger vehicles was 23.8 MPG, improving by 1.1 MPG the record of 22.7 MPG set over the same six months in 2011. Baum & Associates calculated the average fuel efficiency using monthly fuel economy data from the University of Michigan and sales data from Wards Automotive.
"Thanks to a bumper crop of fuel efficient models in the most popular segments, consumers don't have to choose between fuel efficiency and performance," said Alan Baum, principal of Baum & Associates. "No matter what type of vehicle you want, midsize car, minivan, SUV or pickup truck, carmakers are now upping fuel efficiency performance across the board. The new era of auto fuel efficiency is truly here."
Baum pointed to three key factors accounting for these trends that fly in the face of past experience during periods of high gas prices:
There are now significantly more fuel-efficient vehicle choices of all sizes for consumers. The number of high fuel efficiency, high volume vehicle models has more than doubled since 2009 from 28 to 60, according to analysis by Baum & Associates. These include fuel-efficient models of small cars, midsize cars, and crossovers (CUVs). A May 2012 Consumer Reports survey showed that fuel efficiency is by far the #1 concern for prospective auto buyers.
Consumers are buying larger fuel-efficient vehicles, not just small high-MPG cars. In an important shift, the 2012 year-to-date increase in the market share of small cars and crossovers over the same period in 2011 is just 0.4 percentage points. (By contrast, sales of small cars and crossovers jumped by a much larger 4.8 percentage points during the previous period of high gas price from 2007 to 2009.) The important shift here is that consumers are embracing larger fuel-efficient vehicles.
A "perfect storm" of factors coincided with industry roll-out of vehicles under new federal higher MPG standards. Model year 2012 is the first year of a long-term federal program that requires an average laboratory rating of 35.5 mpg by 2016, equivalent to a label average of about 27.3 mpg. Final rules expected next month will raise the standards even further to an average laboratory rating of 54.5 mpg by 2025. In 2012, the increased availability of more ">Auto diagnostic tools fuel-efficient models to meet these standards coincided with high spring gas prices, creating a perfect storm of an ample fuel-efficient car supply in every segment just in time to meet surging consumer demand.
"Simply put, the fuel efficiency standards are working and in fact, are exceeding our expectations," said Luke Tonachel, vehicles analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "These standards are doing exactly what they are supposed to do: delivering the fuel-efficient cars that consumers clearly want. We look forward to the continued improvements and more fuel-efficient choices that the 54.5 mpg standards will bring."
Based on the year-to-date sales data from model year 2012 (October 2011 to June 2012) as tracked by the University of Michigan, the U.S. fleet fuel efficiency average is poised to exceed government regulators' predictions of a fleet wide average of 23.4 mpg for model year 2012.
2012年7月30日星期一
Largest Columbus employers have more than 240 job openings
Bartholomew County’s five largest nongovernment employers have more than 240 open positions in Columbus, primarily for professional employees including software and design engineers and mechanical engineering drafting technicians.
Cummins Inc., the county’s largest employer, with 7,400, has 165 openings for professional employees ">Vehicle Diagnostic equipment. The company has open positions for, among others, an embedded software engineer, a product quality engineer and a transmission gear, shaft and bearing specialist.
“The challenge has been traditionally engineers,” said Janet Williams, director of corporate communications.
Cummins and other local employers have said they’re struggling to find enough qualified engineers for open positions, in part because they have to make up for retiring baby boomers while at the same time recruiting more engineers in response to global growth.
Dorel Juvenile Group employs 827 at its facility on State Street, and has 11 openings for salaried employees, including five design engineers. The company makes child-safety equipment, focusing primarily on child-safety seats. Tim Ferguson, executive vice president for human resources, said the company is having a tough time finding design engineers, who would be charged with designing the next generation of car seats.
Dorel prefers engineers with three to five years of experience and often recruits from the automotive industry, Ferguson said. But luring experienced employees away from established careers is difficult. “People don’t want to move these days,” he said.
For its recruiting, Dorel relies heavily on LinkedIn, a professional network that, according to its website, has 161 million members in more than 200 countries and territories. The high-tech design process, which involves computing the stresses to which the seats and crash test dummies are exposed, can take up to two years from conception to production, Ferguson said.
NTN, which employs 1,700, has 50 openings, including management, maintenance and production, said Barry E. Parkhurst, vice president of administration. NTN makes bearings and constant velocity joints at its campus in Woodside Industrial Park, near Walesboro.
Parkhurst said hourly maintenance positions have proved challenging to fill.
The company will host a job fair on its campus, at 8251 S. International Drive, from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday to fill about 45 hourly positions.
Faurecia employs about 1,500 in Bartholomew County, and has 14 openings, ranging from commodity purchasing to production supervisor and IT technician intern.
Faurecia is an automotive supplier focusing on emissions control systems. Based in France, its local operations include a manufacturing plant on Gladstone Avenue and a technical center on Road 450S.
Aluminum wheel maker Enkei America Inc., also in Woodside Industrial Park, has openings for a quality engineer and an IT programmer. Both positions have been open for three months, said Nikki Baker Lushin, human resources manager.
She said depending on the position auto-diagnostic-tool-cid90">Auto diagnostic tool, the company will recruit from college, but Enkei prefers a quality engineer with automotive background. High competition for such candidates makes hiring difficult, she said.
Enkei also has weekly openings for production workers, she said. Those are hired exclusively through Elwood Staffing in Columbus.
Cummins Inc., the county’s largest employer, with 7,400, has 165 openings for professional employees ">Vehicle Diagnostic equipment. The company has open positions for, among others, an embedded software engineer, a product quality engineer and a transmission gear, shaft and bearing specialist.
“The challenge has been traditionally engineers,” said Janet Williams, director of corporate communications.
Cummins and other local employers have said they’re struggling to find enough qualified engineers for open positions, in part because they have to make up for retiring baby boomers while at the same time recruiting more engineers in response to global growth.
Dorel Juvenile Group employs 827 at its facility on State Street, and has 11 openings for salaried employees, including five design engineers. The company makes child-safety equipment, focusing primarily on child-safety seats. Tim Ferguson, executive vice president for human resources, said the company is having a tough time finding design engineers, who would be charged with designing the next generation of car seats.
Dorel prefers engineers with three to five years of experience and often recruits from the automotive industry, Ferguson said. But luring experienced employees away from established careers is difficult. “People don’t want to move these days,” he said.
For its recruiting, Dorel relies heavily on LinkedIn, a professional network that, according to its website, has 161 million members in more than 200 countries and territories. The high-tech design process, which involves computing the stresses to which the seats and crash test dummies are exposed, can take up to two years from conception to production, Ferguson said.
NTN, which employs 1,700, has 50 openings, including management, maintenance and production, said Barry E. Parkhurst, vice president of administration. NTN makes bearings and constant velocity joints at its campus in Woodside Industrial Park, near Walesboro.
Parkhurst said hourly maintenance positions have proved challenging to fill.
The company will host a job fair on its campus, at 8251 S. International Drive, from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday to fill about 45 hourly positions.
Faurecia employs about 1,500 in Bartholomew County, and has 14 openings, ranging from commodity purchasing to production supervisor and IT technician intern.
Faurecia is an automotive supplier focusing on emissions control systems. Based in France, its local operations include a manufacturing plant on Gladstone Avenue and a technical center on Road 450S.
Aluminum wheel maker Enkei America Inc., also in Woodside Industrial Park, has openings for a quality engineer and an IT programmer. Both positions have been open for three months, said Nikki Baker Lushin, human resources manager.
She said depending on the position auto-diagnostic-tool-cid90">Auto diagnostic tool, the company will recruit from college, but Enkei prefers a quality engineer with automotive background. High competition for such candidates makes hiring difficult, she said.
Enkei also has weekly openings for production workers, she said. Those are hired exclusively through Elwood Staffing in Columbus.
2012年7月28日星期六
Encapsys and Entropy Solutions to Microencapsulate PureTemp Phase Change Material
Microencapsulation is the process of covering a core material with small capsules or shells. Encapsys applies this process to Entropy Solutions’ PureTemp PCM, a thermal energy storage product that collects, stores, and reuses energy to retain constant temperatures for longer periods of time.
PureTemp is developed to maintain over 200 different transition temperatures with repeatable and consistent performance. The product can be permanently encapsulated at any temperature, whereas other PCMs are restricted by temperature ranges and control methods. Microencapsulation enables the application of PureTemp product as a renewable energy resource in a wide range of industries, including automotive, construction and packaging. Hence, Encapsys modifies each microencapsulated PureTemp PCM to fit the production stage and end use application.
Eric Lindquist, CEO of Entropy Solutions, commented that the ability to provide commercial scale encapsulation in various cover materials creates an unbelievable range of consumer and commercial applications of PureTemp phase change material. Lindquist added that several leading companies across the world are developing new products ranging from medical devices to refrigeration systems that employ microencapsulated PureTemp product.
The worldwide PCM market is expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2015 and collaboration of Entropy Solutions and Encapsys enables both the companies to achieve a considerable portion of that growth. Microencapsulated PCM will allow companies to solve several issues related to thermal energy, concluded Lindquist.Learn more information click :.
Eric Lindquist, CEO of Entropy Solutions, commented that the ability to provide commercial scale encapsulation in various cover materials creates an unbelievable range of consumer and commercial applications of PureTemp phase change material. Lindquist added that several leading companies across the world are developing new products ranging from medical devices to refrigeration systems that employ microencapsulated PureTemp product.
The worldwide PCM market is expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2015 and collaboration of Entropy Solutions and Encapsys enables both the companies to achieve a considerable portion of that growth. Microencapsulated PCM will allow companies to solve several issues related to thermal energy, concluded Lindquist.Learn more information click :.
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