Infiniti Vehicles Receive Telematics Technology

NEW YORK, March 28 -- Nissan announced today that it will provide telematics services in its Infiniti Division luxury vehicles using technology provided by Wingcast LLC. The news follows recent announcements that Nissan will join with top automakers in developing telematics for its European customers, and of a new telematics service in Japan named CARWINGS.

``Nissan aims to use telematics to realize stress-free driving and to provide more efficient and pleasant ways to spend the time inside the car for our customer,'' said Patrick Pelata, executive vice president of Planning Group at Nissan. ``Last month, we launched an innovative solution on an entry-level car in Japan. We will offer another one soon in our Infiniti line-up in North America and we are working on one in Europe. Our goal is to realize a seamless connection between our vehicles and the communities in which our owners reside''.

The ``Infiniti Communicator Connected with Wingcast'' telematics service will be offered on four 2003 model year Infiniti vehicles. The technology will provide Infiniti owners with access to a variety of services, including safety and security features such as automatic airbag deployment notification, emergency notification and stolen vehicle tracking; communication services for hands-free voice-activated calling, call-forwarding and voice mail; information services such as news, stocks and weather and location-based navigation services.

The service will be offered as standard equipment in 2003 models of the Infiniti G35 sedan, Infiniti G35 coupe, Infiniti M45 mid-size sedan and the Infiniti Q45 premium luxury sedan. The G35 coupe and the M45 were introduced today during the New York International Auto Show press previews.

On March 14, 2002, Nissan announced it would participate in a joint venture with Alliance partner Renault, Ford Motor Company and PSA Peugeot Citroen for the development of new telematics solutions to aid European motorists.

The new company represents a first cooperation in the telematics sector between three of the world's leading car manufacturers, and will capitalize on their combined telematics capabilities and technologies to develop a shared European infrastructure for their customers.

Nissan also announced Feb. 5, 2002, the release in Japan of CARWINGS, the advanced total telematics service integrating people assisted- and/or automatic services, car, or cell phones, and personal computers. The technology is an adaptation of the New-Generation Information and Communications Concept 2003i that was unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in October last year. CARWINGS is offered as an option on the new compact car March launched earlier this month. It will be introduced throughout the range of Nissan's new models for introduction thereafter.

In related developments, Nissan and NTT DoCoMo announced on Feb. 19, 2002, a basic agreement to study development of new telematics services. Under the agreement, the two companies will conduct detailed study of a wide variety of services, and will work to develop new systems and services based on the third generation of wide band telecommunication (3G) which can become an industry standard for widespread use by many other market participants.