Dana Corporation and GETRAG to partner with Volvo Car Corporation in new joint venture

Toledo, Ohio, April 11 -- - Joint Venture to Produce All-Wheel-Drive and Chassis Systems to Support Global Growth in Crossover Vehicle Market

Dana Corporation and GETRAG Getriebe- und Zahnradfabrik Hermann Hagenmeyer GmbH & Cie KG (GETRAG) have signed a letter of intent with Volvo Car Corporation (VCC) for a new Dana-GETRAG entity to purchase a 60-percent interest in VCC's operations in Koping, Sweden. The resulting joint venture with VCC will produce all-wheel-drive (AWD) and chassis systems for passenger cars and sport-utility vehicles.

"We are tremendously excited about this latest evolution in the Dana-GETRAG relationship and this opportunity to work with Volvo," said Dana Chairman and CEO Joe Magliochetti. "This arrangement will leverage the combined expertise of Volvo, Dana, and GETRAG to serve the burgeoning crossover vehicle marketplace."

Plans for the new joint venture call for the operations in Koping to be streamlined to create a fully integrated, self-sufficient All-Wheel-Drive Center of Excellence including research, development, and engineering; sales and marketing; purchasing; and production of AWD components and assemblies. The joint venture will act as a fully independent supplier and will market its services to Ford Motor Company, its affiliates, and other automotive manufacturers around the world.

"Together with Volvo and based upon an agreed-upon investment plan, we will transform Koping into the leading full-service supplier in the European AWD marketplace," said Tobias Hagenmeyer, CEO of the GETRAG Corporate Group.

Bill Carroll, President of Dana's Automotive Systems Group, said, "This program is particularly exciting because it is driven by the high-value technologies GETRAG and Dana can jointly provide to the world's leading AWD car manufacturers. It also presents a tremendous opportunity to grow our support of Volvo in Europe."

GETRAG is a major supplier to the European automotive industry with an excellent reputation for quality products and technologies. Privately owned, GETRAG was founded in 1935 by Hermann Hagenmeyer and is headquartered in Untergruppenbach, Germany. GETRAG is now located at 16 sites around the world (Germany, Italy, France, U.K., United States, India, and Japan). The company produces manual transmissions for passenger cars, SUVs, vans, motorcycles and light trucks and automated manual transmissions (ASG(R)) for the automotive industry. The company's revenues totalled 1.9 billion Euros in 2002 and it employs approximately 9,000 employees.

Dana Corporation is a global leader in the design, engineering, and manufacture of value-added products and systems for automotive, commercial, and off-highway vehicle manufacturers and their related aftermarkets. The company employs more than 60,000 people worldwide. Founded in 1904 and based in Toledo, Ohio, Dana operates hundreds of technology, manufacturing, and customer service facilities in 30 countries. The company reported 2002 sales of $9.5 billion.

Dana Corporation owns a 30-percent interest in GETRAG, the parent company of the GETRAG group of companies, and a 49-percent direct interest in GETRAG's North American operations.

Gary Corrigan of Dana Corporation, +1-419-535-4813, or gary.corrigan@dana.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/gh/cnoc/comp/226839.html/ Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990903/DANA AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/ PRN Photo Desk, +1-888-776-6555 or +1-212-782-2840