Lithium Technology Corporation Battery Used By PennState Team in Successful `Future Truck' Competition

GAIA High-Power Lithium-ion Battery Outpaces Ultracapacitors

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., July 15 -- Lithium Technology Corporation ("LTC", "The Company") (BULLETIN BOARD: LTHU) , a leading participant in the rapidly emerging large format rechargeable lithium battery market, announced today that the PennState University Future Truck Team, using one of its GAIA brand Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) batteries, placed second in the 2004 Future Truck Competition, held at Ford Motor Company's Michigan Proving Ground and Allen Park Test Laboratory near Detroit June 9-17, 2004.

The vehicles in this engineering competition had to display both performance and endurance in the nine-day event. In addition to a variety of braking, handling, safety and emission tests, they had to demonstrate a high degree of off-road mobility and tow a one-ton trailer up a steep 15-mile grade. The competition culminated with an 80-mile on-road course at the Michigan Proving Ground, including a 30-mile high-speed run, an acceleration contest and a fuel economy trial.

PennState was one of fifteen universities that participated in this final round of the Future Truck advanced vehicle technology competition. Over the past five years, the U.S. Department of Energy along with a number of automotive industry firms, including Ford Motor Company, have sponsored teams of students to reengineer Ford Explorer SUVs to achieve lower emissions and higher fuel economy without sacrificing performance, safety, utility and affordability. The teams used a variety of cutting-edge technologies, including advanced propulsion systems, innovative HEV designs, lightweight materials and alternative fuels.

PennState's SUV was equipped with a 5 Kilowatt-hour, 180-Volt HEV lithium- ion battery provided by LTC. (See LTC news release of July 8, 2003) This high-power battery delivered more than 50 Kilowatts of power for acceleration and reclaimed more than 35 Kilowatts of regenerative braking power, which greatly contributed to the PennState Team's high point standing. The PennState Team took second place overall, which merited an award of $5000, and also won 'best entry' in three separate technical and competitive categories. In addition, PennState's Dr. Daniel Haworth won the prestigious National Science Foundation Outstanding Faculty Advisor award, which included a $20,000 engineering grant to the advisor's university.

Ryan Harrier, the PennState team's stored energy expert, attributed a large degree of the team's success to the GAIA lithium-ion battery system. "The GAIA lithium-ion battery and a modification of the control strategy allowed us to reach about 23MPG on-road fuel efficiency," said Mr. Harrier. "This was a 37% improvement over last year's lead acid battery and a 21% improvement over the stock Ford Explorer." At least half of these improvements resulted by changing from a lead acid to a lithium-ion battery, according to Mr. Harrier. The high rate capability of LTC's GAIA battery was an outstanding asset for PennState, outpacing competitors' strategies. Along these lines, Mr. Harrier added, "I talked to the team using Maxwell ultracapacitors as energy storage, which we had actually considered at one point last summer for our energy storage, and even they could not recapture 200 Amps (35 Kilowatts) of regenerative braking power that the GAIA battery did."

The battery also contributed competition points for design. Using the compact GAIA lithium-ion battery permitted the team to collocate it with all the other high-voltage components in a single enclosure. According to Mr. Harrier, this resulted in a clean and safe electric power package which swayed the judges to award the PennState team prizes for "best workmanship" and best overall design ("vehicle design inspection").

Ron Turi, Director of Product Development and Applications for LTC's GAIA USA unit, said, "This is the first in-vehicle demonstration of our high-power lithium-ion batteries - and it's a great success. We provided 50 high rate 27 Amp-hour flat cells and battery management system electronics to the PennState Team. With minimal direction, they integrated our battery into their vehicle in a way that fully enabled the performance advantages that our battery offered. On top of that, they did it with award-winning elegance and attention to detail. We are proud to be a part of this accomplishment." The battery data from the vehicle confirmed performance data taken on HEV test stands. Under actual vehicle operating conditions, the battery functioned as advertised - individual cells remained balanced and generated minimal amounts of waste heat throughout the competition. Mr. Turi noted that, "This is a big step toward demonstrating the feasibility of high rate lithium-ion batteries for larger HEVs - commercial, military and transit."

LTC produces unique large-format rechargeable batteries under the GAIA brand name and trademark. The Company supplies a variety of military, transportation and back-up power customers in the U.S. and Europe from its two operating locations in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania and Nordhausen, Germany. For additional information on the Company's technology and products, please visit http://www.gaia-akku.com/.