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Exide and Pep Boys Expand Pact to Include Western Retail Sales

5 May 1999

Exide and Pep Boys Expand Pact to Include Western Retail Sales

          Projected Increased Annual Sales of 1.4 Million Batteries

    READING, Pa., May 5 -- Exide Corporation , a global
leader in the lead-acid battery business, announced today that it has expanded
its agreement with Pep Boys , the nation's leading automotive
aftermarket retail and service chain, to include its western stores.
    Exide is now the exclusive provider of automotive batteries for Pep Boys
nationwide.  Exide and Pep Boys sold more than 1.3 million Exide batteries
last year through Pep Boys' eastern stores.  Exide management estimates
additional automotive battery sales through the western outlets of 1.4 million
batteries per year.
    Robert A. Lutz, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Exide
Corporation, said, "This expanded agreement is particularly noteworthy for us.
It builds on our successful partnership with Pep Boys and it meets one of our
strategic goals of doing business which provides substantial potential for
profitability for both partners."
    Exide supplies Pep Boys with automotive batteries bearing the Pep Boys
ProStart brand name, as well as brands like Exide's NASCAR Select, the
standard-bearing brands for the automotive battery business.  Exide's ability
to supply all of Pep Boys automotive batteries will permit Exide and Pep Boys
to focus on increased sales and to promote ProStart and Exide's NASCAR Select.
    Pep Boys currently operates 645 units in 37 states and Puerto Rico and is
the only aftermarket retail and service chain in the nation serving all four
segments of the automotive aftermarket: do-it-yourself, do-it-for-me, buy-for-
resale, and tires.  With revenue of $2.4 billion, nearly 28,000 employees and
6,700 service bays, Pep Boys is the nation's leading and most respected
automotive aftermarket retail and service chain.
    Mitchell G. Leibovitz, Pep Boys' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
said, "We are pleased to have reached this very attractive five year agreement
with Exide and expect it to benefit both companies.  This agreement will
enable all of our customers to enjoy Exide's high quality batteries at Pep
Boys' every day low prices."
    Exide Corporation, with annual revenues of more than $2.2 billion and
operations in 19 countries, is the world's largest manufacturer of automotive
and industrial lead-acid batteries.  Further information about Exide's
businesses and products is available at http://www.exideworld.com.

    Certain statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking
statements as defined by the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  As
such, they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors
which may cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different
from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
These are enumerated in further detail in the Company's Form 10-K.