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Arotech Completes First Milestone
of Phase III Electric Bus Program
July 2, 2003 - Arotech Corporation
(NasdaqNM: ARTX) announced today that its Electric Fuel subsidiary’s
Electric Vehicle Division has completed the first milestone in Phase
III of the FTA-supported Electric Bus program. The program will continue
with the bus performance tests during the summer.
Phase III improvements to the Electric
Fuel Zinc-Air zero-emission bus include the design, installation and
bench testing of a new ultracapacitor and controller. Electric Fuel
has completed the preparation of zinc anodes for the test drives, scheduled
to take place in upstate New York later this summer.
The United States Federal Transit
Administration (FTA) funds at least half of the $2 million budget associated
with Phase III of Electric Fuel’s Zinc-Air Electric Transit Bus
Program, with remainder of the budget shared by the partners in the
program. The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC)
will continue its role in leading the project’s peer review committee,
and supporting demonstration drives in Southern Nevada.
The Zinc-Air Electric Transit Bus
Program was initiated in late 1998 to demonstrate the ability of Electric
Fuel’s patented zinc-air fuel cell system to power a full-size,
all-electric transit bus, providing a full day’s range for heavy-duty
city and suburban routes, under all weather conditions. During 2001
and 2002, Electric Fuel announced that various performance tests and
on road bus demonstrations had been successfully completed.
“We believe Zinc-Air is the
only viable near term solution for zero emission mass transit,”
said Arotech Chairman and CEO Robert S. Ehrlich. “With continued
support we should be able to demonstrate our system’s ability
to reduce national dependence on foreign oil while contributing in a
serious way to the improvement of urban air quality.”
About the Zinc-Air Bus
The bus used in the program is a standard
40-foot (12 meter) transit bus manufactured by NovaBus Corporation.
It has a capacity of 40 seated and 37 standing passengers and a gross
vehicle weight of 39,500 lbs. (17,955 kg.). The bus utilizes a new all
electric, battery/battery hybrid propulsion system jointly developed
by Electric Fuel and General Electric Global Research with funding from
the Federal Transit Administration of the Department of Transportation.
The all-electric hybrid system consists of a main energy source; an
Electric Fuel zinc-air battery; and an auxiliary power source, which
in Phase II, consisted of an auxiliary battery. The vehicle draws cruising
energy from the zinc-air battery and supplementary power for acceleration,
merging into traffic and hill climbing from the auxiliary power source,
which in Phase III, will incorporate advanced generation ultracapacitors.
About Arotech Corporation
Arotech's corporate mission is to
provide quality defense and security products for the military, law
enforcement and homeland security markets, including advanced zinc-air
batteries, multimedia interactive simulators/trainers and lightweight
armoring.
Arotech Corporation (www.arotech.com) operates two business divisions:
Electric Fuel Batteries — developing and manufacturing zinc-air
batteries for military and homeland security applications and developing
electric vehicle batteries for zero emission public transportation;
and Arotech Defense — consisting of IES Interactive, which provides
advanced high-tech multimedia training systems for law enforcement and
paramilitary organizations, and MDT Armor, which provides vehicle armoring
for the military, industrial and private sectors.
Arotech is incorporated in Delaware
under the name “Electric Fuel Corporation” and has corporate
and sales offices in New York and Denver with research, development
and production subsidiaries in Alabama, Colorado and Israel.
Except for
the historical information herein, the matters discussed in this news
release include forward-looking statements, as defined in the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned not
to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as they
are subject to various risks and uncertainties that may cause actual
results to vary significantly. These risks and uncertainties include,
but are not limited to, risks relating to: product and technology development;
the uncertainty of the market for Arotech’s products; changing
economic conditions; delay, cancellation or non-renewal, in whole or
in part, of contracts or of purchase orders; significant future capital
requirements; and other risk factors detailed in Arotech’s most
recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December
31, 2002, as amended, and other filings (under the name Electric Fuel
Corporation) with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Arotech assumes
no obligation to update the information in this release. Reference to
the Company’s website above does not constitute incorporation
of any of the information thereon into this press release.
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