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Arotech's Electric Bus Program
Awarded New $1.5 Million Cost Sharing Funding from the Federal Transit
Administration
Phase IV to Explore Steps to Commercialize
Zinc-Air Fuel
September 25, 2003 - Arotech
Corporation (NasdaqNM: ARTX) announced today that it has received approval
from the United States Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to fund
half of the $1.5 million cost-shared budget associated with the new
Phase IV of Arotech's Electric Fuel Zinc-Air Electric Transit Bus Program.
The remainder of the budget will be 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 new Phase IV program will explore
steps necessary for commercializing the all-electric zinc-air / ultracapacitor
hybrid bus. It will focus on continued optimization of the propulsion
system developed in previous Phases, on additional vehicle and system
testing, including testing alternative advanced auxiliary battery technologies,
and on evaluating alternative zinc anodes, which are more commercially
available in North America.
"The continued support from the
FTA is great encouragement for our zero-emission bus program. Mass transit
by bus is a particularly appropriate application for our zinc-air technology
because of the poor emissions performance of diesel engine buses and
the requirement of transit buses to operate for long shifts on a single
battery charge", said Robert S. Ehrlich, Chairman, President and
CEO of Arotech. "During the course of this new testing program,
we expect to be able to further demonstrate that our zinc-air fuel cell
technology can run a bus at the performance level required by the operators
of metropolitan transit authorities, while contributing in a serious
way to the improvement of urban air quality. While Arotech's focus has
shifted to defense and security products, we have not forgotten our
zero-emission bus program, which continues to be an integral part of
our company."
The Zinc-Air Electric Transit Bus Program
was initiated in late 1998 to demonstrate the ability of Arotech'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, 2002 and 2003, Arotech announced
that various performance tests and on road bus demonstrations had been
successfully completed.
Diesel engine transit buses operate
in large urban areas where congestion is a commonplace and traffic is
largely stop-and-go. As a result, they are a leading contributor to
inner city toxic emissions and are a major factor for those U.S. cities
that have been designated as being in "non-attainment" with
respect to air quality standards. Overall, transit buses require a large
energy storage battery to power the vehicle while attending to passenger
needs such as air-conditioning, handicapped access and similar ancillary
functions.
The all-electric hybrid Zinc Air bus
program is designed to prove that an all-electric bus can meet transit
bus standards, including New York Municipal Transit Authority mass transit
requirements, which include performance, speed, acceleration, and hill
climbing.
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 all-electric hybrid
system consists of a main energy source -- the Electric Fuel zinc-air
battery; and an auxiliary power source -- consisting of a bank of advanced
ultracapacitors and 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.
Regenerative retarding is achieved with the auxiliary power source as
well, capturing energy when the bus slows down or stops.
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, MDT Protective Industries
and MDT Armor, which provide vehicle armoring for the military, industrial
and private sectors, and Arcon Security, which provides homeland security
consulting and other services.
Arotech is incorporated in Delaware
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 with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. Arotech assumes no obligation to update the
information in this release. Reference to Arotech's website above does
not constitute incorporation of any of the information thereon into
this press release.
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