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Popular Science Selects Amerigon's Climate Control Seat For Award

15 November 2000

Popular Science Selects Amerigon's Climate Control Seat(TM) (CCS(TM)) System For 'Best Of What's New' Award

              Patented System Features Internal Heating, Cooling

    IRWINDALE, Calif., Nov. 15 Amerigon Inc.
announced today that its innovative Climate Control Seat(TM) (CCS(TM)) system
for cars, sports utility vehicles, trucks and other vehicles and featuring
individual climate controls, has been selected by the editors of Popular
Science magazine to receive a "Best of What's New" award for 2000.
    The patented CCS system is the only such system on the market today that
allows the driver and front seat passengers to actively control the warming or
cooling of their respective seats to meet climate conditions for year-round
comfort.  The climate controls operate through a self-contained and self-
generating cooling and warming system that is integrated internally into each
seat and that has no connection to the car's engine or air conditioner.
    CCS is currently offered as an option on the new model year 2001 Lexus
LS 430 luxury sedan and the 2001 Lincoln Navigator sports utility vehicle.  It
was first introduced as an option for the model year 2000 Lincoln Navigator
and since that time more than 55,000 CCS systems have been shipped.
    CCS has also been chosen to be a standard feature in the all new model
year 2002 Lincoln Blackwood luxury utility vehicle, which was debuted in early
September and is scheduled to be in dealer showrooms in the spring of 2001.
    The award was presented to Amerigon President and CEO Richard A. Weisbart
at a recent luncheon held at Tavern on The Green in New York City.  The award
winning Climate Control Seat system will be featured in the Automotive
Technology category in a 26-page editorial section in the December 2000 issue
of Popular Science.

    Climate Control Seat(TM) (CCS(TM))
    The proprietary CCS system, which is integrated into a vehicle seat, is
the first system of its kind.  It significantly enhances individual driver and
passenger comfort in virtually all climatic conditions by providing cooling
and heating to seat occupants, as desired, through an active, thermoelectric-
based temperature management system.
    Ambient air is drawn into the system from the cabin of the vehicle and,
based on seat-occupant inputs from individual seat controls, as well as inputs
from temperature sensors built into CCS, the system's advanced design heat
pump heats or cools the air.  The heat pump, which uses no CFCs or other
environmentally sensitive coolants, is built around a highly efficient, solid-
state Thermoelectric Device (TED) that rapidly converts electric current into
the desired thermal effect (hot or cold).  The "conditioned" air is circulated
through the seat surfaces by a uniquely designed, DC fan mounted into the
structure of each seat, cooling or heating each seat and its occupant to
individually preferred levels of all seasons' comfort.