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Williams Controls Begins Shipment of Electronic Throttle Controls

11 October 2000

Williams Controls Begins Shipment of Electronic Throttle Controls to Ford

    PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 10 Williams Controls, Inc.
announced that it has begun initial shipment of electronic
throttle control (ETC) pedal assemblies from its Sarasota, Florida factory to
two Ford facilities producing the Ford Super Duty Truck Series, including the
F250, F350, F450, F550, F650, F750 and Excursion models with PowerStroke
diesel engines.
    This shipment is part of the execution of Williams Controls' continuing
plan to aggressively move into the automotive and light truck ETC foot pedal
market.  The Ford Super Duty truck program, a long term contract with
estimated annual volume in excess of 250,000 units, is the third major
automotive based ETC program that Williams Controls has put into production
since the company decided to expand into this growing market last year.
    The company also expects to have additional automotive and light truck ETC
pedal assembly contracts, which were awarded earlier this year, in production
at Williams' facilities throughout 2001 and 2002.  By 2003, Williams Controls
expects that it will be manufacturing over 1,500,000 ETC pedals annually for
automobile and light truck manufacturers, based on contracts awarded to the
company as of this time.  This is in addition to the ETC programs that the
company has in place for its traditional heavy and medium duty truck markets.
    "We are obviously pleased that we have begun to ship to Ford, and we are
in full production to meet the needs of the growing line of quality F-Series
pickups," stated Thomas W. Itin, chairman and chief executive officer of
Williams Controls.  "The Ford ETC program represents a significant effort by
the company's Florida operations, beginning with the design and testing at our
Technology Center through the manufacturing at our QS-9000 quality certified
Pedal Systems facility in Sarasota.  Our engineers worked closely with Ford
personnel to ensure the new pedal assembly met both the physical
characteristics and output requirements of the vehicles, and this combined
effort has resulted in a cost effective ETC that should contribute to improved
performance, reliability and driver comfort for Ford truck owners."
    Mr. Itin continued, "We have made considerable investment to get to this
point in our move into ETCs for autos and light trucks, and we are pleased
that we are now beginning to show the significant results we anticipated from
this effort."
    The sensors used in the Ford Super Duty ETCs employ the latest design of
Williams Control's Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) position sensor
technology, for which the Company has applied for worldwide patent protection.
The LTCC sensors were produced by the company's Aptek subsidiary in Deerfield
Beach, Florida, where the company has installed a high volume automated
production line to meet the demand for sensors to support Williams Controls
rapidly growing presence in the automotive and light truck ETC market.  These
sensors are also being produced for installation in the company's ETC products
for its traditional heavy and medium duty truck market operations in Portland,
Oregon.
    "The sensor development and manufacturing facility at Aptek is another
example of a major R&D investment by Williams that is now paying off for the
company," stated Ronald Velat, Vice President of Sensor Engineering and
Operations.  "Our ETC sensor manufacturing capacity is rapidly filling up
based on the amount of automotive and light truck contracts that we have in
hand at this time.  Based on the expected needs of the passenger vehicle
markets and those of the company's heavy truck markets, we will soon have
production capacity for over three million sensors per year.  This capacity
did not exist a year ago at this time, but we made the investment to position
Williams to be able to satisfy current and future customer requirements."