Industry and Information Bulletins

In our on-going efforts to provide you with broader communications and industry information, we are pleased to issue this Industry Bulletin discussing the ever-increasing application of rare earths as an enabler for new and exciting environmentally-beneficial technologies. 

As most Avalon shareholders are aware, rare earth elements are critical to new fuel-efficient automotive technologies and Avalon´s Thor Lake project represents one of the few significant potential non-Chinese sources of supply in the world. The following recent announcements confirm the trend for accelerating growth in demand for Hybrid Electric Vehicles.

Toyota Commitment to Champion Hybrids

It took Toyota Motor Corp six years to sell 10,000 hybrid vehicles in Canada after it rolled out its first Prius in 2000. It will take around 12 months to sell the next 100,000 vehicles if this year´s sales momentum continues. Furthermore, four out of every 10 Camrys now sold in British Columbia is a hybrid version.

With growing interest in Toyota and its innovative product line, the Company aims to boost sales 11% globally by 2009 in its bid to overtake industry leader General Motors. Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said in a recent news conference that "Toyota will focus on product quality, introduce new gas-electric hybrid technologies and boost sales globally" to meet this goal. 

A clear example of Toyota´s strategy being put into practice is its mid September announcement that Toyota Canada will be trimming the price of its Prius Hybrid by about $2,000 or 6% and adding approximately $2500 in standard features – despite its struggle to keep up with demand. There will also more be hybrid models to come. Parent company, Toyota Motor Corp in Japan is increasing capacity in its plants that manufacture hybrids, with the aim of selling one million hybrids globally - or about 10% of its world-wide sales by 2010 or 2011.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070918.RTOYOTA18/TPStory/?query=toyota

European Car Manufacturers

In an attempt to increase its market share for fuel efficient and emission reducing vehicles, European car makers profiled their respective new and technological offerings at the Frankfurt Auto Show earlier this month.

Mercedes Benz confirmed that Canadian drivers will be able to buy its two-mode rear drive hybrid system that Mercedes developed in conjunction with BMW and General Motors in the form of its ML 450 Hybrid. The biggest news however was BMW premiering its first production gasoline-electric hybrid and the world´s first sports-utility-like coupe