News Releases

01/10/2006

HITACHI INTRODUCES ECOHEART NEW ERA PERMANENT MAGNET MOTORS AND DRIVES

TARRYTOWN, NY, January 10, 2006 -- Hitachi America, Ltd., Power and Industrial Division, today announced the new ECOHEART family of high efficiency permanent magnet motors and drives. ECOHEART represents a new era in drives technology. ECOHEART is targeted to OEMs, allowing them to create their own customized drive system.

Compared with conventional standard induction motors, ECOHEART permanent magnet technology achieves 10% higher efficiency because the internal power loss is reduced by 50%. Also, the volume of the motor is reduced by 50% and the weight by 35% due to high performance magnets and a new method of winding the stator. With the sinusoidal motor current wave form developed, instead of trapezoidal wave form which typical permanent magnet motors employ, ECOHEART achieves low torque ripple, low vibration and acoustic noise and much reduced harmonics.

ECOHEART Drives have no standard form factor and can be OEM unique. In the current release, ECOHEART performance is optimized for Water Pump Applications and will be expanded in the future to other application such as Fans, Compressors, Conveyors, where more and more energy savings and downsizing are critical.

For more information, please contact www.hitachi.us/inverters or inverterinfo@hal.hitachi.com.

Hitachi America, Ltd., Power & Industrial Division supplies a broad range of Industrial and Power generation products and services. The division supplies major equipment to power generation and distribution facilities, including hydroelectric, thermal and nuclear power plants. The division also supplies sophisticated industrial equipment and components for application in pharmaceutical plants, food & beverage processing, steel making, mass transit systems, chemical plants, and other manufacturing facilities.

Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics, computer systems and products, and consumer electronics, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout North America. For more information, visit http://www.hitachi.us.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 347,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2004 (ended March 31, 2005) consolidated sales totaled 9,027.0 billion yen ($84.4 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s website at http://www.hitachi.com.

*Ecoheart is a brand name of Hitachi, Ltd.