On August 8, JATCO Ltd (headquartered in Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan: President and CEO Shigeo Ishida), manufacturer of automatic and continuously variable transmissions (AT/CVT) celebrates　1 Million units production at JATCO México, S.A. de C.V (JMEX), located in Aguascalientes city, Aguascalientes State, Mexico. General Director Mr. Tomoyoshi Sato announced that after reaching this accumulated production volume of CVTs, JMEX has met satisfactorily one of the targets of production in very short period of time, keeping a high quality level of CVTs and full customer satisfaction in the NAFTA region.

JATCO expanded the production capacity for new-generation CVTs in order to meet the growing global demand for CVTs, which are considered as advanced environmental-friendly technology.  JATCO established JATCO México, S.A. de C.V. in Mexico in April 2003 as its first overseas production facility.  JATCO Mexico has been manufacturing CVTs since November 2005 on its two production lines (Global No. 3 and No.5 line). Global No. 3 is the production line with a capacity of 35,000 units per month, and includes an Aluminum Foundry plant and the machining lines for Case, Gears, Pulleys and heat Treatment lines.  In addition, ｔhe new Global No. 5 CVT production line, which was launched in April 2008, will add 23,000 units to the JMEX monthly production capacity.  This production line and supporting Case Gear, Pulleys and heat treatment lines were inaugurated on April 16th 2008.

Mr. Sato will preside over the 1 Million units ceremony together with Mr. Armando Jimenez San Vicente,   Secretary of Economical Development of Aguascalientes State, as well as other local guests.

JATCO CVT benefits with improved fuel efficiency and less CO2 emissions, vehicles with CVT transmissions are expected to grow in demand in the future.  In this environment of increased demand, JATCO México, S.A. de C.V. is an important manufacturing base for JATCO’s further growth and globalization.

JMEX Annual Production Volume

1 Million unit produced as of August 7th. 2008
Year	Volume	Type of Product
2005	6,429	Belt CVT for medium FWD vehicles
2006	252,068
2007	420,097
As of Aug 7th.2008	321,406
Total	1,000,000

Outline of JATCO México, S.A. de C.V. 

Location	Aguascalientes City, Aguascalientes State, Mexico
Land area	About 200,000 m2
Total Floor Area	About 79,000 m2
Production Capacity	About  700,000 units/year
Production Models	Belt CVTs for medium and large FF vehicles : Maxima, Altima, Sentra, Caliber, Compass, Patriot.
Employees	About 1,000 (as of March 2008)
Brief History	April 2003: Company establishment January 2004: Start of building construction October 2004: Completion of construction November 2005: Start of Production on CVT Global No. 3 – 35K units /month April 2008 :    Start of production on CVT  Global No. 5 – 23K units /month August 2008 :   1 Million Units Produced

JATCO is internationally recognized as a premier AT/CVT supplier. Direct customers of JMEX are Chrysler LLC, Nissan North America (Canton and Smyrna) and Nissan Mexicana.

JATCO was the first manufacturer in the world to start steel-belt CVT volume-production of 2.0L class front-wheel-drive vehicles in 1997, and 3.5L class high-torque front-wheel-drive vehicles in 2002.  JATCO is the only OEM supplier to offer a full line of front-wheel-drive CVTs for small vehicles, medium and large vehicles up to 3.5L.

* Acronym for "Continuously Variable Transmission” In basic structure, input and output pulleys are linked by a single steel belt and the reduction gear ratio varies continuously due to variations in the radius of the contact point of the pulleys and steel belt. Compared to the conventional step (stepped shift) ATs, CVTs provide better fuel efficiency, smoother driving without shift shock, better acceleration and other advantages.