IMPCO Signs Contract With Hino Motors of Japan to Develop CNG Buses for Southeast Asian Market

CERRITOS, Calif., Oct. 7, 2003 -- IMPCO Technologies, Inc. today announced that the company has recently signed a contract with Hino Motors, Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan to develop and sell CNG fuel systems to power buses intended for the Southeast Asian market.

Under the terms of the development program, IMPCO will develop and certify a fuel system for the HINO J08C natural gas bus engine and also develop the fuel storage and delivery system. IMPCO and Hino will jointly integrate the CNG systems into the bus including durability and validation work. The engine will be certified to meet Euro II emission standards, which will offer the Southeast Asian market a low emissions, low cost alternative to existing diesel powered buses. Hino intends to start production of the low emissions natural gas buses in 2004. In the first year of production IMPCO expects sales volumes for this CNG bus program to exceed $2.5 million and increase to more than $4 - 5 million when peak production levels are reached. Following the commercial introduction of the CNG bus, IMPCO and Hino plan to develop higher power turbocharged versions of this engine for larger capacity bus applications.

Hino Motors, whose major shareholders include Toyota, is one of the world's major manufacturers of diesel engines, trucks and buses. In the year ended March 31 2003, Hino had revenues exceeding $7.1 billion and produced more than 65,000 diesel engines. In the domestic market Hino produced more than 23,000 medium and heavy duty trucks, which represented an industry leading market share of more than 29%. In addition Hino produced more than 10,000 light duty trucks, 2,100 buses and 26,000 vehicles for overseas markets.

Regarding IMPCO:

IMPCO and BRC design, manufacture, market and supply advanced alternative fuel systems and related products for the transportation, industrial and power generation markets. Headquartered in Cerritos, California and Cherasco Italy, they have offices in Asia, Europe, Australia and South and North America. More information can be found at IMPCO's web site, http://www.impco.ws/ and at BRC's web site, http://www.brc.it/ .