SHANGHAI, April 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. has announced the opening of a new world-class test track in Heihe in the northern region of China. TRW has made a significant investment in the facility since its set-up began in 2006.
The facility offers comprehensive product development and validation during the winter season -- offering a variety of track surfaces which are designed to test active safety systems such as advanced braking and steering systems and integrated vehicle control and driver assist technologies. The opening of this facility, supported by engineers from our technical center in Shanghai, completes our footprint to locally engineer products and applications for our customers in China.
Nancy Gougarty, TRW vice president of Asia Pacific Operations, said "Heihe offers world-class testing conditions and boasts one of the broadest ranges of testing surfaces in the Asia Pacific region. We are proud to be able to support our China domestic and international customers locally with their product development requirements. Having a test track here in China means that we can greatly reduce the time and costs of our winter testing, while developing new and enhanced safety systems for the domestic and global markets."
The facility is situated on approximately 350 acres, comprised of around 320 acres of lake tracks and 30 acres of land tracks. The location includes a dynamic area, a handling track, ice testing circles of 200m and 500m in diameter, and packed ice, polished ice and mue-split surfaces strategically designed for active safety systems development.
"The new test track greatly improves our in-house winter testing capability," explains Jim Luo, general manager of TRW's Asia Pacific technical center. "It will provide our engineers with a local research and data gathering facility and serve as a technical assessment centre where we can work collaboratively to review and discuss vehicle performance directly with our customers."
The track is situated by the Songjitun Reservoir in the Heilongjiang Province of China and is easily accessible from Heihe airport. With the Heihe test track, TRW now has a network of 12 testing sites worldwide including six winter testing facilities, four warm weather facilities and two all-weather test tracks.
About TRW
With 2008 sales of $15.0 billion, TRW Automotive ranks among the world's leading automotive suppliers. Headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, USA, the Company, through its subsidiaries, operates in 26 countries and employs approximately 65,000 people worldwide. TRW Automotive products include integrated vehicle control and driver assist systems, braking systems, steering systems, suspension systems, occupant safety systems (seat belts and airbags), electronics, engine components, fastening systems and aftermarket replacement parts and services. All references to "TRW Automotive", "TRW" or the "Company" in this press release refer to TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. and its subsidiaries, unless otherwise indicated. TRW Automotive news is available on the internet at www.trw.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains statements that are not statements of historical fact, but instead are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties which can cause our actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements, including those set forth in our Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 (our "Form 10-K"), such as: any prolonged contraction in automotive sales and production adversely affecting our results, liquidity and the viability of our supply base; the financial condition of OEMs, particularly the Detroit Three, adversely affecting us and the viability of our supply base; disruptions in the financial markets adversely impacting the availability and cost of credit negatively affecting our business; our substantial debt and resulting vulnerability to an economic or industry downturn and to rising interest rates; escalating pricing pressures from our customers; commodity inflationary pressures adversely affecting our profitability and supply base; our dependence on our largest customers; costs of product liability, warranty and recall claims and efforts by customers to alter terms and conditions concerning warranty and recall participation; strengthening of the U.S. dollar and other foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacting our results; any increase in the expense and funding requirements of our pension and other postretirement benefits; risks associated with non-U.S. operations, including economic uncertainty in some regions; work stoppages or other labor issues at our facilities or at the facilities of our customers or suppliers; assertions by or against us relating to intellectual property rights; the possibility that our largest shareholder's interests will conflict with ours; and other risks and uncertainties set forth in our Form 10-K and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revision to any of these forward-looking statements.