Ener1 Adds Three New Executives

NEW YORK, July 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Ener1, Inc. (NASDAQ: HEV), a leader in energy storage technology solutions, today announced it has appointed three new executives to support anticipated growth and existing programs for its electric utility, transportation and industrial electronics customers.

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"We're continually looking for ways to reduce our overall structural costs while simultaneously enhancing our operational ability to deliver world-class energy storage solutions to existing customers, like the Federal Grid Corporation, Volvo Cars, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Toro, Motorola and Kenwood Radio," stated Ener1 President Chris Cowger.  "We are adding some first-rate talent to strengthen Ener1's operations, manufacturing, human resources and finance areas to help us achieve this goal.  These new hires bring more than 75 years of combined Fortune 500 experience working across a broad range of technology companies and managing billions of dollars in revenue.  We expect they will be terrific assets in driving our growth over the next several years to make Ener1 an even more cost-efficient company for both current and future customers."

Additions to Ener1's leadership team include:

• Melissa Debes joins Ener1 in the role of chief accounting officer and senior vice president of finance.  She will also serve as chief financial officer for Ener1's EnerDel subsidiary.  With more than 25 years experience, she was previously the corporate vice president of finance at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), where she consolidated business planning and forecasting efforts and spearheaded AMD's zero-based budgeting process.  Prior to joining AMD, she was the division controller for Motorola's PowerPc computing platform group.  Melissa has a bachelor's degree in finance from Arizona State University and a master's degree in international management from Thunderbird-American Graduate School.

• Dan Allen will serve as Ener1's senior vice president of operations and procurement.  For the past 13 years, he was an executive director in worldwide procurement at Dell, where he gained extensive experience in global sourcing, supplier development and supply-chain optimization.  Prior to Dell, Dan spent 10 years with EDS in various finance and operations positions, including four years living in Beijing and Hong Kong establishing EDS's China operations.  Dan has a bachelor's degree in finance from Iowa State University and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Dallas.

• Eddie Luedke joins Ener1 as vice president of human resources with more than 20 years experience from companies like AMD, Dell and EDS.  He most recently ran AMD's human resources function for sales, marketing, corporate strategy, IT, and finance.  During his 11-year tenure with Dell, Eddie had HR responsibility for the global sales and call center organizations, and managed compensation and benefits for Latin America and Canada.  Eddie earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Texas A&M University.

Ener1 is also pleased to announce that Robert Kamischke, who has served as Ener1's chief accounting officer and vice president of finance, will bring his expertise to a new role as vice president of manufacturing engineering.

"We believe we're building a world-class technology company with operations extending across Asia, North America and Europe, which will provide us with greater scale and flexibility to meet our customers' needs," stated Ener1 Chairman & CEO Charles Gassenheimer.  "Having a top-notch leadership team, with the experience and knowledge to help grow and manage our global operations, is important to our continued success.  We are also grateful for the further capital commitment from the company's principal shareholder announced last week.  With the additional capital commitment and our ability to attract exceptional talent, we're very optimistic about continuing our recent growth in grid energy storage, as well as building upon our success in the transportation sector.  We also anticipate our industrial electronics small pack battery business will surpass last year's revenue growth."

About Ener1, Inc.

Ener1, Inc. is a publicly traded (NASDAQ:HEV) energy storage technology company that develops compact, lithium-ion-powered battery solutions for the transportation, utility grid and industrial electronics markets. Headquartered in New York City, the company has more than 700 employees with manufacturing locations in the United States and Korea. Ener1 also develops commercial fuel cell products and nanotechnology-based materials. For more information, visit Ener1's web site at www.ener1.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements made in this press release constitute forward-looking statements that are based on management's expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "believes," "scheduled," "estimates" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and the company does not undertake any obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this press release.

MEDIA CONTACT
Brian Sinderson
212-920-3500 X117
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SOURCE Ener1, Inc.