January 4, 2001

Maxwell Technologies Inc. has signed an agreement to supply ultracapacitor energy storage cells to General Motors and GMs’ Allison Transmission division, a leading developer of low-emission, fuel-efficient hybrid electric powertrains for buses and trucks.

Carl Eibl, Maxwell's president and CEO, says that the deal with GM is the first of what the company expects to be multiple opportunities for its ultracapacitors to address the energy storage and burst power needs of the transportation industry.

"General Motors and Allison evaluated the entire gamut of available energy storage options, including numerous battery alternatives, and chose Maxwell's PowerCache ultracapacitors for their hybrid vehicles," says Eibl. "We believe that at a target price of $30 or less per cell in 2003, total transportation market demand could reach one million cells in 2003, and ramp rapidly to more than 100 million cells in 2008."

David Piper, Allison's director of engineering, says that ultracapacitors' efficient electrical energy storage and rapid discharge/recharge capabilities are integral to Allison's and GMs' development programs for low emission, fuel-efficient, hybrid powertrains and advanced electrical drive systems.

"By supplementing the primary engine with an electric motor that assists initial acceleration and recaptures and reuses braking energy, we can reduce fuel consumption by more than 50 percent, reduce particulate emissions by 90 percent and reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 50 percent as compared to conventional diesel engines," Piper says. "Evidence suggests that Maxwell's ultracapacitors satisfy our storage, release and recharge requirements better and provide greater reliability and longer service life than batteries or any other energy storage component we tested."

Richard Balanson, president of Maxwell's Electronic Components Group, says that Maxwell has begun filling GM's initial purchase order, and has significantly increased production capacity to meet anticipated demand for all of its PowerCache products.

“The requirements for these transportation applications are quite similar to those driving our opportunities in consumer and industrial electronics, alternative energy generation and other markets," Balanson notes. "Most energy-consuming applications demand both steady-state power and the ability to deliver bursts of higher power, such as for acceleration of a vehicle or the flash of a camera. Our products are unique in their ability to "cache" power for those bursts, recharge rapidly and perform reliably over hundreds of thousands of cycles."

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Kinzan, a San Diego-based provider of hosted Web services, has teamed with Nourison Inc., the world's largest and most diversified importer of handmade rugs, to bring Nourison's network of 1,200 dealers to the Web.

Nourison will use Kinzan's hosted Web services for content management, commerce and communications to enable its dealers to launch Nourison Inc. branded Web sites.

From www.rugsites.com, authorized Nourison dealers will be able to create, personalize and publish Nourison-branded Web sites to reach new consumers.

"This initiative is important because it gives our dealers true e-commerce capabilities and distinguishes Nourison as the leader in Internet marketing," says Andrew Peykar, v.p. of Information Services at Nourison.

Kinzan says the sites are easy to set up in minutes, requiring no prior programming knowledge.

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On Saturday, the city of San Diego is hosting its annual Electronics Recycling Day from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Qualcomm Stadium.

The public can bring old computers, electronics equipment, and small appliances.

Donations are tax-deductible. Participants can enter a drawing to win new Sony computers and tickets to SeaWorld and San Diego Zoo.

Equipment that can be refurbished will be made available to non-profits and schools and, that which isn’t, will be recycled, keeping potentially harmful materials out of the Miramar Landfill.

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