Yazaki Shifts High-Voltage Production and Manufacturing Capabilities From Japan to U.S.

CANTON, Mich., April 11 -- Yazaki North America, Inc. (Yazaki), a leading supplier of vehicle power and data solutions to the automotive industry, announced today a plan to transfer technical expertise supporting high-voltage engineering and manufacturing capabilities from its operations in Japan to North America. Scheduled to occur over the next three years, the move will continue to build on their leadership position in the rapidly growing hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), high-voltage connection systems and components business in the United States.

"Hybrid vehicles have an increasingly bright future in the U.S. market place," said George Perry, president and CEO, Yazaki North America, Inc. "It makes good business sense for us to leverage our existing corporate knowledge and experience to develop a strong local capability to provide quality, cost- effective products and technologies to our customers."

Yazaki is well-positioned in the high-voltage field in Japan and has been developing components to support electric drive technologies for over 10 years. Its high-voltage products are used on all hybrid electric vehicles sold in North America.

Kevin Pimlott, previously assigned as vice president, Electronics & Instrumentation, has been selected to lead a team in the first phase of this initiative to transfer HV capabilities from Yazaki operations in Japan to North America.

In this phase, Yazaki North America will dispatch engineers to Japan for a year to work directly with their Japanese counterparts, learning best practices and processes as they master engineering and manufacturing disciplines in order to bring the necessary skill sets back to North America. North American OEMs will not have to wait until the transition is complete before they can count on Yazaki to deliver products and technology. Throughout the entire transition period, Yazaki will respond to customer requests by engaging the necessary resources from its global company.

In the second phase, the company will begin manufacturing selected high- voltage products, such as cables in North America. The location of the North American manufacturing facility is yet to be determined.

At the completion of the third phase of the transfer, Yazaki will have established sufficient subsystem manufacturing and engineering capabilities locally to support any customer's North American application of high voltage technology.

Yazaki Corporation is a global leader in the research, development and delivery of vehicle power and data solutions, as well as advanced electronic technologies for vehicle applications. Yazaki produces electrical distribution systems, fiber optics, instrumentation, solid-state power centers, connection systems and electronics. Worldwide, the company employs over 151,000 people in 37 countries, 1,500 of whom are based in the company's North American headquarters and research center campus in Canton, Michigan. For more information on Yazaki, log onto http://www.yazaki-na.com/ .