AVL North America Announces New President

PLYMOUTH, Mich., Oct. 9, 2007 -- Gregory Hopton takes office today as President of AVL North America, Inc., announced Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Don Manvel. Hopton will oversee AVL's Instrumentation and Test Support division, responsible for all assets from presales to customer service.

"We are very pleased to have Greg on board at AVL. He adds a wealth of knowledge and engineering experience to the team," said Don Manvel. "I trust that he will use his ability and education to push AVL to still higher levels of professional success."

Hopton replaces Larry Moulton, who is retiring from active management. Moulton will continue on with AVL in a formal consulting role.

Prior to taking on this position, Hopton was General Manager for LMS North America. There he managed and directed the total North America regional offices for enterprise-wide engineering solutions.

Previously, Hopton served as Vice President -- Automotive Division of Sika Corporation. He led new business development worldwide of specialty acoustic, bonding and sealing materials for the automotive OEM industry. In addition, he coordinated all product development and business strategy. He also supervised the design, construction and staffing of Sika's Acoustic Test Facility.

A member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Hopton earned Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

AVL is the world's largest privately owned and independent company for the development of gasoline, diesel and alternative fuel powertrain systems, as well as fuel cell and hybrid technologies. The company offers combined solutions of powertrain engineering, simulation software and testing and instrumentation systems. AVL's North American Headquarters is located in the Detroit suburb of Plymouth, Michigan. For more information, AVL can be found at www.avl.com.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Hopton resides in Novi, Michigan.