Amerigon Establishes European Headquarters in Augsburg, Germany

NORTHVILLE, Mich., Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Amerigon Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARGN), a leader in developing and marketing products based on advanced thermoelectric (TE) technologies, announced today the opening of a technical support office in Augsburg, Germany, to provide design initiatives, product development, application engineering and prototype builds in support of European sales.  The Company is headquartered in Southeast Michigan, and also maintains sales and technical support centers in Southern California, Japan, England and Korea.  The Augsburg office, which will serve as the European headquarters and further enhances Amerigon's presence in Europe, will be headed by Marco Ranalli, Managing Director Amerigon Europe GmbH.  

Prior to joining Amerigon, Ranalli was Director Global Advanced Engineering at EMCON Technologies, now part of Faurecia, an automotive equipment supplier of automotive seating, emissions control technologies, interior systems and automotive exteriors.

Amerigon President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel R. Coker said, "Expanding into new regional markets with our highly successful seat systems continues to be a goal of ours.  It is our intention to have a stronger presence in Europe, so the opening of this office will help us further establish and expand our relationships with a number of key European automotive manufacturers."

Amerigon's proprietary Climate Control Seat™ (CCS™) systems are currently offered as an optional or standard feature on 49 vehicle lines produced by Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, Kia and Jaguar/Land Rover.  

About CCS

In the CCS system, which is built around Amerigon's highly-efficient, solid-state thermoelectric device, air is forced through the heat pump and thermally conditioned in response to electronic switch input from the seat occupant.  The conditioned air circulates by a specially designed fan through ducts in the seat cushion and seat back, resulting in a surface that can be heated or cooled.  Each seat has individual electronic controls to adjust the level of heating or cooling.  CCS substantially improves comfort compared with conventional air conditioners by focusing the cooling directly on the passenger through the seat, rather than waiting until ambient air cools the seat surface behind the passenger.

Amerigon is the largest supplier of TE systems for cars, with more than 6.1 million thermoelectric-based seat systems sold.

About Amerigon

Amerigon (NASDAQ-GS: ARGN) develops products based on its advanced, proprietary, efficient thermoelectric (TE) technologies for a wide range of global markets and heating and cooling applications. The Company's current principal product is its proprietary Climate Control Seat® (CCS®) system, a solid-state, TE-based system that permits drivers and passengers of vehicles to individually and actively control the heating and cooling of their respective seats to ensure maximum year-round comfort. CCS, which is the only system of its type on the market today, uses no CFCs or other environmentally sensitive coolants. Amerigon maintains sales and technical support centers in Southern California, Southeast Michigan, Japan, Germany, England and Korea.  For more information, visit the Company's website at www.amerigon.com.

Certain matters discussed in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may be different.  Important factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from its expectations in this release are risks that sales may not significantly increase, additional financing, if necessary, may not be available, new competitors may arise and adverse conditions in the automotive industry may negatively affect its results.  The liquidity and trading price of its common stock may be negatively affected by these and other factors.  Please also refer to Amerigon's Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, its Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2010, and its Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009.

SOURCE Amerigon Incorporated