OSHKOSH, WIS., (October 21, 2002) – Oshkosh Truck Corporation [NYSE: OSK], a leading manufacturer of medium- and heavy-payload defense trucks, will display its ProPulse™ hybrid electric drive technology at the Association of the United States Army conference show in Washington, D.C., October 21 – 23. Oshkosh will showcase its ProPulse-equipped HEMTT (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck) in the convention’s outdoor exhibit area. The vehicle will also feature Oshkosh’s proprietary Command Zone™ electronics, which allows real-time diagnostics and prognostics of vehicle systems.
Oshkosh is the first manufacturer to build a severe-duty defense truck with an electric hybrid drive system. The company’s ProPulse system can improve fuel economy dramatically in off-road operation, reduce emissions, improve life cycle costs, and serve as an on-board AC generator with enough output to power an entire airfield. The system features a unique, modular series-hybrid arrangement.
“The benefits of this powerful system are truly remarkable. ProPulse provides the foundation to drive heavy trucks in a true off-road environment – over rocks, through rivers, up steep hills – something no one else has delivered in a hybrid electric system. At the same time, it can increase fuel economy, offers impressive diagnostics / prognostic capabilities, and can serve as a major power source. We believe this technology can dramatically enhance the mission profile of tactical trucks worldwide,” said Robert G. Bohn, Oshkosh’s chairman, president and chief executive officer.
Members of Oshkosh’s engineering development team will be on hand to answer questions about ProPulse and to demonstrate the vehicle’s remote prognostic and diagnostic Command Zone electronics using wireless technology.
Oshkosh Truck Corporation is a leading manufacturer of specialty trucks and truck bodies for the defense, fire and emergency, concrete placement and refuse hauling markets. Oshkosh Truck is a Fortune 1000 company with products marketed under the Oshkosh, Pierce, McNeilus, Medtec, Geesink and Norba brand names. The company is headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA, with major operations in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden and Mexico. Annual turnover was $1.45 billion in fiscal 2001. ###
