The rising cost of oil requires US energy independence. Oil and gas billionaire T. Boone Pickens is promoting a $65K tax credit for compressed natural gas trucks to establish a refueling infrastructure network.
Experian's brand loyalty analysis for 3rd quarter 2009 shows Ford and Hyundai with growing numbers. The Toyota Venza was rated the overall No. 1 vehicle for brand loyalty. Toyota's Prius and Camry were also in the Top 10. In corporate loyalty, Toyota is ranked first followed by GM and Ford.
T. Boone Pickens was a keynote speaker at the NADA convention, where he laid out his sustainability and energy conservation vision. Part of this plan is to convert half the 18-wheelers on America's roads over to natural gas-powered vehicles. He predicted this would reduce half the oil imported into the country.
Diverse fleets require numerous tire sizes and spare wheels. Standardization, retreading and purchasing with lifecycle cost rather than lowest initial cost saves fleets money.
The US military controls the current Global Positioning System (GPS) which can be inaccurate up to 56'. The civilian European Space Agency now has 3 of the 18-20 satellites of its Galileo project in orbit feeding data to European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) which, when integrated with land-based signals, improves accuracy 10-20%.