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SolarWorld AG is planning to submit an offer to the US car maker General Motors (GM) to take over the four German factories and the Rüsselsheim development center of Adam Opel GmbH. To this end SolarWorld AG can make available cash funds amounting to 250 million EUR and bank credit lines worth 750 million EUR under the proviso that the federal government provides a guarantee. The SolarWorld Group which has so far been exclusively involved in solar power technology would subsequently develop Opel into the first "green" European automotive group. A core prerequisite for the submission of the offer is the complete separation of Opel from the GM Group and a compensation payment of 40,000 EUR per German job (totaling 1 billion EUR). At the four German Opel locations it is the idea of SolarWorld AG to continue the sustainable further development of the current successful model ranges and, additionally, to produce a new generation of vehicles with energy-efficient, low-emission drives in the future. The European development center in Rüsselsheim is already working on solutions for future-oriented electric drive vehicles like the "Volt". After the restructuring of the product range the tradition-fraught German car maker would especially offer electric drive and hybrid drive vehicles in the future as well as models equipped with the latest technology like extended-range electric drive vehicles that combine electric motors and combustion engines in a highly efficient manner. Two years ago SolarWorld AG had in a similar case taken over the solar division of the Shell Group with a compensation payment of 100 million EUR, consistently modernized it at various sites in the USA and taken it into black figures in the course of this year. "Sustainability is a comprehensive concept. The challenges of climate protection and of the market can only be met if we move on from automotive to solar-motive concepts", says SolarWorld Chairman and CEO Frank H. Asbeck. The group has already been working for some years on the development and testing of electric drive vehicles that are propelled by solar energy and that even participate successfully in motor racing.

About SolarWorld AG

The SolarWorld AG group of companies (ISIN: DE0005108401) is a world leader in high quality solar power technology. The company is involved at all levels of the solar value chain and combines all activities of the industry from silicon as the raw material to turn-key solar power system. SolarWorld AG is represented in all international solar growth markets. The group is exclusively dedicated to its core business of photovoltaic power generation, operating production facilities in Germany and the USA. They in turn supply the SolarWorld AG sales offices in Germany, Spain, USA, South Africa and Singapore. In South Korea SolarWorld AG is currently building up a solar module production facility in order to be able to serve the growing demand in Asia on the spot in the future. A central element of the business in addition to the sale of turn-key solar systems and solar modules to retailers is the distribution of solar silicon wafers to the international solar cell industry. Apart from grid-coupled (on-grid) products the SolarWorld Group also sells off-grid solar power solutions that make an important contribution to the sustainable economic development of threshold and developing countries. Under the roof Solar2World the group has pooled its ethical commitment to solar power especially in developing countries. SolarWorld AG employs 2,254 people worldwide. At the stock market the company is listed among others in the technology index TecDAX, in the ÖkoDAX, in the Dow Jones STOXX 600, in the international MSCI index as well as in the sustainability indices DAXglobal Alternative Energy and NAI.

Published by: SolarWorld AG

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