Westport's Ford Focus wins two gold medals and a silver medal at the 2001 Michelin Challenge Bibendum

VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 29 - Westport Innovations Inc. announced today that its low-emissions Ford Focus was awarded two gold medals and a silver medal at the 2001 Michelin Challenge Bibendum competition for environmentally-positive vehicles. The golds were for handling and quietness and the silver was for fuel efficiency. The Westport Ford Focus is the world's first natural gas-fueled car with a diesel-cycle engine.

The Westport Ford Focus performed particularly well in the most important and difficult event of the Bibendum, a 160-kilometer (100-mile) racetrack test at the California Speedway in San Bernardino, CA. The racetrack test was important because it was the primary event in the Bibendum that required prototype vehicles to drive under real-world conditions for a sustained period of time and at a sustained speed while measuring fuel efficiency.

On the 440-km (275-mile) drive from the speedway to Las Vegas, the Westport Ford Focus easily climbed the 1,430-meter (4,700-foot) Baker grade. Failure of an after-market engine sensor forced the car to a temporary halt at the last checkpoint, approximately 30 miles before Las Vegas. The Focus will continue on its 6,200-km (3,875-mile) journey to the Ford Research and Engineering Center in Dearborn, Michigan, where it will be tested by Ford engineers under the terms of a joint development agreement between Westport and Ford.

``We are grateful to Michelin Group for inviting us to be part of the 2001 Bibendum,'' said David Demers, Westport's President and Chief Executive Officer. ``The competition was a serious and realistic assessment of our industry's progress at developing vehicles that will meet customer expectations while delivering real benefits to the environment. By working with Ford, the leader in factory-built natural gas vehicles, our team was able to compete against the best in the world. The results speak for themselves.''

Neal Greenfield, Supervisor of Gaseous Fuel Engine Design for Ford, added, ``I was impressed by the power-train characteristics of the Westport Ford Focus during my hour at the wheel on the drive to Las Vegas. Performance at this stage of development indicates that the technology should match the expectations of sophisticated light-duty diesel vehicle customers. The vehicle was quiet enough at this stage to indicate potential for acceptability even to retail customers. I look forward to improvements in off-the-line performance that should come from planned hardware and engine calibration developments later this year.''

Westport began developing natural gas technology for light-duty diesel engines in 1999. The technologies bridge the efficiency and performance of modern diesel engines, with the environmental and fuel cost benefits of natural gas vehicles. The goal would be production vehicles that have excellent environmental benefits, but with life-cycle costs, including the cost of fuel purchased over the life of the vehicle, that are lower than vehicles operating on diesel fuel or gasoline, and lower than traditional natural gas vehicles.

The goal of the racetrack event, which took nearly two hours, was to complete 50 consecutive circuits around the 3.6 km (2-mile) oval at an average speed of approximately 88 km (55 miles) per hour. Because the track was outfitted with two chicane turns, requiring vehicles to brake nearly to a stop, the average speed required on the rest of the track was approximately 130 km (80 miles) per hour.

Of the 45 vehicles invited to compete in the Bibendum, only 35 attempted the racetrack test and only 15, including the Westport Ford Focus, completed it. None of the 16 other prototype or concept cars in the Bibendum exceeded Westport's fuel-efficiency silver grade and only one matched the Westport car in that category.