plus 3, Suzuki Burgman scooter runs on fuel cell - CNET News

Suzuki Burgman scooter runs on fuel cell - CNET News
ADP National Employment Report Shows U.S. Employment Decreased by 22 ... - PR Inside
Your Questions Answered - Associated Press
Mobilityworks Acquires Accubuilt Mobility Commercial Vans - PRLog (free press release)

Suzuki Burgman scooter runs on fuel cell - CNET News

Posted: 03 Feb 2010 07:38 AM PST

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LONDON--A new hydrogen-powered fuel cell hybrid electric scooter will enable city commuting ease without harming the environment, the chief executive of Intelligent Energy said at the bike's launch here.

The Suzuki Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter, made by clean power systems company Intelligent Energy and Suzuki Motor, will be tested in Loughborough from this month, with further road tests planned for London later this year.

"We see a market pull for more energy-efficient products and there is a real drive to bring hydrogen vehicles to market en masse by 2015," Henri Winand, Intelligent Energy's chief executive, told Reuters in an interview Wednesday.

Suzuki Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter

(Credit: Intelligent Energy)

Motorcycle manufacturers face a clampdown on air pollution and climate-warming emissions in the European Union, and the industry says it is ready for pan-European rules.

Climate officials of the 27-country bloc have put transport emissions at the top of their agenda for 2010 as the EU pursues its goal of cutting carbon dioxide to a fifth below 1990 levels over the next decade.

Hydrogen has long been touted as an alternative energy source to carbon-hungry fossil fuels but one of the biggest obstacles to wider adoption of fuel cell vehicles is the lack of hydrogen fueling stations.

The Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter is fueled by a cylinder of hydrogen, which reacts with oxygen to produce electricity and water. A lithium-ion battery and fuel cell provide the vehicle's power and the only gas emitted through the exhaust is water vapor.

Unlike other fuel cell vehicles, the battery does not need recharging. It can recharge itself when accelerating or decelerating and continues to produce power as long as it has hydrogen and oxygen.

A tipping point in 2015
The bike can go up to 220 miles--comparable to a conventional Burgman scooter--without the need for refueling. This then takes less than five minutes at a hydrogen fueling station, the companies said.

The London Hydrogen Partnership (LHP) aims to have six or more such stations running by 2012, which will be enough to fuel fleets until then, Winand said.

However, he would expect more refueling stations to be deployed by 2015, to coincide with mass production of the Burgman scooter and other hydrogen vehicles.

"There is a growing consensus among governments, utilities, auto manufacturers and oil and gas companies that hybrid vehicles will be in use by 2015," he said.

Intelligent Energy is also involved in the manufacture of hydrogen-fueled taxis for London. The LHP hopes to have 50 on the roads by 2012, and will start trialing five hydrogen buses from next month in East London.

Hydrogen is in abundant supply and the scooter only requires a few hundred grams to go 350 kilometers (210 miles), keeping the fuel cost comparable to no more than petrol today, Winand said.

"Every year there is about 50 million tonnes of hydrogen going around and nobody notices. If we utilize a few hundred grams per 350 kilometers you don't need any heavy infrastructure. An awful lot of industries produce hydrogen which they don't do anything with," he said.

Intelligent Energy raised $30 million of financing in July last year, which is sufficient for its current plans, though the company hopes to issue an initial pubic offering at an undisclosed time, Winand added.

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ADP National Employment Report Shows U.S. Employment Decreased by 22 ... - PR Inside

Posted: 03 Feb 2010 05:30 AM PST

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2010-02-03 14:31:06 -

ROSELAND, NJ -- (Marketwire) -- 02/03/10 -- According to today's ADP National Employment Report® :

, private sector employment decreased by 22,000 in January. The ADP National Employment Report, created by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP®) :

, in partnership with Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC :

, is derived from actual payroll data and measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month.

 Nonfarm Private Employment Highlights -- January Report:  -- Total employment: -22,000  -- Small businesses* -12,000 -- Medium businesses** 9,000 -- Large businesses*** -19,000  -- Goods-producing sector: -60,000  -- Service-providing sector: +38,000  Addendum: -- Manufacturing industry: -25,000  * Small businesses represent payrolls with 1-49 employees ** Medium businesses represent payrolls with 50-499 employees *** Large businesses represent payrolls with more than 499 employees

According to Joel Prakken, Chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC, "Nonfarm private employment decreased 22,000 from December 2009 to January 2010 on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the ADP National Employment Report. The January employment decline was the smallest since employment began falling in February of 2008. Growth of overall private employment is on the verge of turning positive."

Prakken added, "January's ADP Report estimates nonfarm private employment in the service-providing sector increased by 38,000, the second consecutive monthly increase. However, this employment growth was not enough to offset continued losses in the goods-producing sector. Employment in the goods-producing sector declined 60,000, with employment in the manufacturing sector dropping 25,000. The employment decline in the manufacturing sector was the lowest since January of 2008."

"Large businesses, defined as those with 500 or more workers, saw employment decline by 19,000 while small-size businesses with fewer than 50 workers, declined 12,000. Employment among medium-size businesses, defined as those with between 50 and 499 workers, increased by 9,000, the first increase in employment since January of 2008," said Prakken.

Prakken went on to say, "In January, construction employment dropped 37,000. This drop marks the third straight year of consecutive monthly employment declines and brings the total decline in construction jobs since the peak in January 2007 to 1,804,000."

The matched sample used to develop the ADP National Employment Report was derived from ADP data, which during the twelve month period through December 2009, averaged over 360,000 U.S. business clients and represented over 22 million U.S. employees. This approximately represents the size of the matched sample used this month.

 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Notice of Intent to Make Annual Revisions to the ADP National | | Employment Report® | | | |On March 3, 2010, Automatic Data Processing, Inc., in conjunction with | |Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC, will publish annual revisions of the | |estimates of employment shown in the ADP National Employment Report. | |These revisions will reflect: | | | | -- Updated regression estimates used to adjust for historical | | differences in the variances of the monthly growth rates of | | employment reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and | | computed from ADP data. | | -- Updated estimates of the differences in the historical averages | | of the growth rates of employment reported by the Bureau of Labor| | Statistics and computed from ADP data. | | -- Updated estimates of historical seasonal factors. | | -- The reference month for establishing the levels of employment | | shown in the ADP National Employment Report will be advanced from| | March 2008 to March 2009. | | -- There are no revisions to the methodology of computing the | | estimates of employment shown in the ADP National Employment | | Report. | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Small Business Highlights -- January Report:

Due to the important contribution small businesses make to economic growth, employment data that is specific to businesses with fewer than 50 employees will be reported in the ADP Small Business Report : ® each month. The ADP Small Business Report is a subset of the ADP National Employment Report.

###PRECONTENT2###

Private employment among small businesses : decreased by 12,000 in January, according to the ADP Small Business Report released today. Additional information about small business employment, including charts on monthly job growth and employment levels, along with historical data, is available at www.smallbusinessreport.adp.com : .

"Employment among small-size businesses, defined as those with fewer than 50 workers, declined 12,000 in January. This decline was the smallest since July of 2008. Small business employment in the service-providing sector increased by 16,000, the second consecutive monthly increase," said Joel Prakken.

To obtain additional information about the ADP National Employment Report, including additional charts, supporting data and the schedule of future release dates, or to subscribe to the monthly e-mail alerts and RSS feeds, please visit www.ADPemploymentreport.com : . The February 2010 ADP National Employment Report will be released March 3, 2010 at 8:15 A.M. ET.

About the ADP National Employment Report®

The ADP National Employment Report, sponsored by ADP®, was developed and is maintained by Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC. It is a measure of employment derived from an anonymous subset of roughly 500,000 U.S.
business clients. During the twelve month period through December 2009, this subset averaged over 360,000 U.S. business clients and over 22 million U.S. employees working in all private industrial sectors. The ADP Small Business Report® is a monthly estimate of private nonfarm employment among companies in the United States with 1-49 employees and is a subset of the ADP National Employment Report. The data for both reports is collected for pay periods that can be interpolated to include the week of the 12th of each month, and processed with statistical methodologies similar to those used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to compute employment from its monthly survey of establishments. Due to this processing, this subset is modified to make it indicative of national employment levels; therefore, the resulting employment changes computed for the ADP National Employment Report are not representative of changes in ADP's total base of U.S.
business clients.

For a description of the underlying data and the statistical properties of the series, please see "ADP National Employment Report: Development Methodology" at ADPemploymentreport.com/methodology.aspx : .

About ADP

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP), with nearly $9 billion in revenues and about 570,000 clients, is one of the world's largest providers of business outsourcing solutions. Leveraging 60 years of experience, ADP offers the widest range of HR, payroll, tax and benefits administration solutions from a single source. ADP's easy-to-use solutions for employers provide superior value to companies of all types and sizes. ADP is also a leading provider of integrated computing solutions to auto, truck, motorcycle, marine and recreational vehicle dealers throughout the world.
For more information about ADP or to contact a local ADP sales office, reach us at 1 (800) 225-5237 or visit the company's Web site at www.ADP.com : .

About Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC

Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC (MA) has been the most trusted source for U.S.
macroeconomic forecasts and commentary, monetary and fiscal policy analysis, and econometric modeling for 25 years. MA's clients include leading financial service firms, nonfinancial corporations, key policymaking agencies of the U.S. government, as well as State and Foreign Government agencies. Additional information on Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC is available on the company's Web site, www.MacroAdvisers.com : .

The ADP National Employment Report and ADP Small Business Report are registered trademarks of ADP, Inc.
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Media Contacts:
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ADP
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Your Questions Answered - Associated Press

Posted: 03 Feb 2010 03:28 AM PST

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TOKYO (AP) -- Honda's quarterly profit soared sixfold on cost cuts and strong sales of green vehicles, boosting the Japanese automaker's full year forecast as the global car market gradually recovers.

Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. said Wednesday it booked net profit of 134.6 billion yen ($1.49 billion) for the October-December quarter and predicted its first increase in full year profit in two years, underlining a recovery in world auto sales.

The results were better than the 74 billion yen ($818 million) profit forecast by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

The Japanese automaker, known for the Insight hybrid, Accord sedan and Odyssey minivan, reported an 11.5 percent drop in sales for the quarter at 2.24 trillion yen ($24.8 billion), partly because of the strong yen.

Honda has weathered the auto slump better than some of its bigger rivals because of its strength in emerging markets and its solid motorcycle division.

Honda managed to stay in the black for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008, when other Japanese automakers, such as Toyota Motor Corp., sank into losses. Honda eked out a 20.2 billion yen profit for that period.

In months ahead, Honda could stand to benefit from the woes of Toyota, which has recalled 4.5 million vehicles globally - more than half of them in North America - for problems with accelerator pedals that can stick, possibly causing crashes.

Honda is not offering the incentives in the U.S. that General Motors Co., Hyundai Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co. are using to woo Toyota owners to buy their cars. But Honda's Accord dethroned the Toyota Camry as the best-selling car in the U.S. for January.

The Camry, the top-seller in the U.S. for the last eight years, is among the eight models that Toyota has recalled and stopped selling and producing because of gas-pedal problems.

Honda has also announced a fairly large recall of its own, covering 646,000 Fit hatchbacks because of a glitch that could cause water to enter the power window mechanism, causing components to overheat.

The recall, announced last week, covers North America, Asia, Latin America, Europe and South Africa. In some countries, the Fit was sold as the Jazz and City.

The company raised its profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2010 for the third time to 265 billion yen ($2.9 billion), almost double the 137 billion yen profit it had posted the previous year, and its first annual profit rise in two years.

In October, Japan's No. 2 automaker had raised its profit forecast to 155 billion yen ($1.7 billion), nearly four times its initial outlook, citing sales boosts from government-backed green incentive programs and strong China sales.

On Wednesday, it stuck to its full-year global sales projection of 3.4 million vehicles, down 3.3 percent from 3.5 million for the fiscal year ended March 2009.

But it now expects slightly better sales at 8.53 trillion yen ($94.3 billion), compared to its earlier forecast of 8.45 trillion yen.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Honda sold 914,000 vehicles around the world, down 2.8 percent from 940,000 vehicles a year earlier, as sales dropped in North America and Europe, in contrast to strong sales in Japan and other parts of Asia such as China and India.

Quarterly sales in Japan surged 31 percent to 177,000 vehicles, led by the Insight and Fit. Such fuel-efficient models are a hit in Japan, where the government is offering incentives for green vehicles, including making hybrids tax-free.

Honda said a strong yen erased 57 billion yen ($630 million) in quarterly income.

For the nine months through December, Honda's profit slipped 38.1 percent from the same period the previous year to 196.2 billion yen ($2 billion) on 6.3 trillion yen ($70 billion) sales, down 23.4 percent.

Other Japanese automakers are also likely to report rosier numbers compared to the doldrums of the previous year.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. on Wednesday posted its first quarterly profit since July-September 2008. It earned 10.7 billion yen ($118.3 million) in October-December, a turnaround from a loss of 17.5 billion yen a year earlier.

Toyota reports earnings Thursday, Mazda Motor Corp. on Friday and Nissan on Tuesday.

Honda shares jumped 2.3 percent to 3,140 yen in Tokyo.

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Mobilityworks Acquires Accubuilt Mobility Commercial Vans - PRLog (free press release)

Posted: 03 Feb 2010 04:40 AM PST

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production of new Ford E-Series raised roof mobility vans, cutaway shuttle buses and other custom ordered vehicles.

"This transaction enables MobilityWorks to rapidly expand our presence in a growing market," said Taylor Clark, MobilityWorks Principal and executive in charge of the company's commercial business segment.

MobilityWorks vans are equipped with lifts and other adaptive equipment for transporting people in wheelchairs and able-bodied passengers. The company also provides special use custom vans such as medical equipment haulers and prisoner transport vans.

An additional $7 to $8 million in sales revenue is expected for MobilityWorks as a result of the acquisition. MobilityWorks reported annual revenues of $66 million in 2009, counting its consumer retail sales coming from 13 dealer showroom locations in 7 states. The company is expected to add 30 new jobs, including sales and production positions, with all manufacturing taking place at the MobilityWorks production facility on Wilbeth Road in Akron, OH. MobilityWorks' corporate headquarters is located approximately 8 miles north of the facility, also in Akron.

New to MobilityWorks' vehicle offerings is the Ford Transit Connect Mobility Van, which the company started modifying toward the later half of last year. The Transit Connect was recently named North American Truck of the Year at the International Auto Show and will be on display by MobilityWorks at the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association (NMEDA) Annual Conference in Reno, NV this February.

Adding to excitement generated by the Accubuilt Mobility acquisition and the Transit Connect, a modified wheelchair accessible motorcycle is being launched by the company called The Mobility Conquest. "The Transit Connect and Conquest Motorcycles are generating a lot of interest", said
Guy Hanford, Director of Marketing for MobilityWorks Consumer Vans. "Both of these new products are getting daily inquiries."

In addition to retaining most of the Accubuilt Mobility sales staff, MobilityWorks announced that Roger Vartanian has been named Vice President of West Coast Commercial Operations. Mr. Vartanian, who has been the Vice President of Sales at Accubuilt Mobility since 2007, brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the MobilityWorks team. Many people still refer to the Vartanian name when describing certain types of wheelchair, shuttle and executive style vans. His father founded Vartanian Industries, which later became part of Accubuilt, Inc. in 2002. "It's a family legacy that I'm very proud to have," said Mr.Vartanian.

MobilityWorks enjoys bailment pool status with Ford Motor Company, allowing the company to order vehicle chassis directly from Ford. MobilityWorks is also a Ford Quality Vehicle Modifier (QVM), a designation currently bestowed by Ford Motor Company to only 11 qualified conversion companies (a.k.a. 'upfitters') in the United States.

About MobilityWorks

MobilityWorks was started in 1997 by Bill Koeblitz, MobilityWorks President/CEO and Taylor Clark with the acquisition of New Era, a single location, $500,000 per year business that installed wheelchair lifts in full-sized vans. Since then, MobilityWorks has become a significant leader in the mobility industry with outstandingworkmanship, unsurpassed customer service and a commitment to providing quality products. The NMEDAQAP Certified company has approximately 200 employees nationwide and 13 consumer showroom locations in the states of CA, IL, MI, NY, OH, PA and WI. Its latest store opening was in Skokie, IL at the beginning of 2010. They are listed by INC Magazine as a 2009 INC 5000 company with a 65% growth rate. They have been selected as a Weatherhead 100 Company for the past 6 straight years, an annual award honoring successful companies in Northeast Ohio. Bill Koeblitz and Taylor Clark were also named to Ernst & Young's Top 10 Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005. For more information about MobilityWorks, please visit http://www.mobilityworks.com.

Press Contact:

Guy Hanford
Director of Marketing
MobilityWorks
810 Moe Drive, Akron, OH 44310
P. 330-633- 1118
E. ghanford@mobilityworks.com

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