Dow Kokam Achieves Construction Milestone for Midland Battery Park Facility

Midland, Michigan — December 9, 2010

Exterior Walls Finished, Phase 1 of Construction on Schedule for 2012 Completion

Dow Kokam, a leading large-format battery system producer, today announced that construction on Phase 1 of the Midland Battery Park facility achieved a significant milestone toward start up in first quarter 2012 with the completion of its primary exterior walls, enclosing the 400,000 square foot building. When completed, Phase 1 of the Midland Battery Park will manufacture advanced lithium ion batteries for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.

“Progress on the Midland Battery Park has advanced swiftly and safely since the groundbreaking in May, aligning with Dow Kokam’s strategy for rapid commercialization to meet the automotive industry’s critical need for advanced battery solutions,” said David Pankratz, Dow Kokam’s vice president of operations. “The facility will add significant capability to North America’s supply of advanced lithium ion battery systems, and will help support the growing market for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.”

Construction of the Midland Battery Park is taking place in two overlapping phases. The current stage of construction, Phase 1, will span 400,000 square feet, and have a capacity of 600 million watt hours, or the equivalent to 30,000 fully electric vehicles with a 20 KWh battery system. When it is completed, Phase 1 will employ 320 full-time workers at steady-state.

The construction on Phase 1 has already deployed more than 300 construction workers, and is expected to deploy 1,000 total workers throughout the construction phase. Dow Kokam had committed to ensure that 80 percent of building construction labor hours are incurred in Michigan, promoting local industry and employment; and is far exceeding this goal with more than 95% of the total construction hours worked by Michigan residents to date.

“The effort put in by the highly-qualified construction crews has kept the project on schedule with an outstanding safety record,” said Pankratz. “We look forward to working more with the local community and employment base to complete construction and drive Dow Kokam’s success.”

Production start-up leaders are already on board and planning for hiring, equipment staging, and process commissioning are underway with the majority of hiring for manufacturing roles at Dow Kokam beginning in mid-2011. Information about employment opportunities at Dow Kokam will continue to be posted at http://www.dowkokam.com/employment.htm as it becomes available.

About Dow Kokam
Dow Kokam brings technologically advanced and economically viable battery solutions to the transportation, defense, industrial and medical industries. Uniting Dow, Kokam America and Dassault SVE creates the first battery and energy management systems manufacturer to combine viable, scalable large-format battery technology with the market franchise, manufacturing expertise and market knowledge necessary to become the clear partner of choice across industries.

Dow Kokam was established in 2009 to develop and manufacture advanced energy storage technologies for the transportation and other industries. The company is owned by The Dow Chemical Company, TK Advanced Battery LLC and Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault.

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