New product launch

Tanfield Group PLC
15 April 2008


THE TANFIELD GROUP PLC

LAUNCH OF NEW ZERO-EMISSION ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN COLLABORATION WITH FORD

Tanfield's trading division, Smith Electric Vehicles, today launches the Smith
Ampere, a new product aimed at the light van sector. Ampere, which utilises the
Ford Transit Connect chassis, and will be joint branded Ford and Smith, was
designed and developed by Tanfield in collaboration with Ford. Both Ford and
Smith Electric Vehicles will officially unveil Ampere on their respective stands
at the Commercial Vehicle Show in Birmingham, UK, today at 10am.

Ampere is a pioneering pure electric vehicle in its class. It is aimed at urban
operators using large fleets of light vans, in sectors such as postal and
courier, utilities and telecommunications. It has a gross vehicle weight of
2,340kg, with payload capacity of up to 800kg.

Ampere has a range in excess of 100 miles on one battery charge and a top speed
of up to 70mph. It is powered by a 50 kilowatt electric motor and an Iron
Phosphate lithium-ion battery pack. This is a new drive train and battery and
was developed specifically for Ampere.

Ford has already announced that it will launch the Transit Connect in North
America and recently unveiled a taxi cab variant. Tanfield will concurrently
launch the Ampere for sale in the USA. .

The Company today also launches the Faraday mark II, specifically aimed at North
America. Ford will supply a range of chassis for Faraday commercial vehicles
with a gross vehicle weight of up to 13,000kg. Tanfield will commence
manufacture of the first of these new products for North America in the second
half of 2008.

Tanfield has reached a broad agreement with Ford to collaborate on future zero
emission vehicle projects and is investigating further opportunities in sales,
marketing and product development both in Europe and North America.

Darren Kell, Chief Executive of The Tanfield Group Plc, said: 'The launch of
Ampere brings leading edge zero-emission technology to the light van sector for
the first time.

'Our relationship with Ford in North America will provide Smith with high
quality chassis that will be recognisable to, and readily accepted by American
customers.

'Today's product launches will significantly increase the addressable market for
our electric vehicles and are a major step towards our goal of offering a full
global range of zero emission commercial vehicles, from light vans to medium
duty trucks.'

Steve Kimber, Head of Commercial Vehicles for Ford of Britain, said: 'As the UK
market leader in commercial vehicles, it makes sound business sense for us to
fully engage with the market leader in commercial electric vehicles.

'The Transit and Transit Connect are Europe-wide success stories for Ford.
Demand for zero emission vehicles is growing exponentially as the battery and
drive line technology improve their performance. Ford's collaboration with
Tanfield places us in pole position to fully exploit this opportunity.'


Contacts

The Tanfield Group Plc                     Tel: [phone]

Darren Kell, Chief Executive

Charles Brooks, Finance Director


Fishburn Hedges                            Tel: [phone]

Morgan Bone                                Mob: [phone]

[e-mail]

Cenkos Securities plc                      Tel: [phone]

Stephen Keys

St. Helen's Capital plc                    Tel: [phone]

Ruari McGirr


Notes to Editors

Ampere and Faraday II join the existing successful Smith product range, which
includes Edison and Newton. Both Edison and Newton have a top speed of 50mph and
a range on one battery charge in excess of 100 miles.

Newton is the world's largest pure electric truck, offered in GVWs from 7,500kg
to 12,000kg. Based on the Ford Transit chassis cab, Edison, which is also joint
branded, is the world's first pure electric van with a GVW of under 3,500kg -
critical as it can be driven by anyone with a standard UK driving licence.

Smith Electric Vehicles today also launches new versions of both vehicles
powered by Iron Phosphate lithium-ion battery packs. For the first time, this
gives Edison parity with the conventional Transit when it comes to cubic
carrying capacity, because lithium-ion can be packaged more intelligently around
the Transit chassis than the incumbent Sodium Nickel Chloride battery
technology.

Ford has recently launched a larger version of Transit with a 4,600kg Gross
Vehicle Weight, to accommodate certain applications that require greater payload
than a sub-3,500kg vehicle will allow. Thanks to Tanfield's collaboration with
Ford Europe and the significant engineering resource Ford has provided, the
Company is already able to offer a 4,600kg Edison based on this new chassis.

The Commercial Vehicle Show also marks the launch of a minibus Edison derivative
with 15 seats. The minibus is in the final stages of pre-production and customer
deliveries will commence later this calendar year. The minibus is also powered
by the new, under-slung lithium-ion battery pack. Full European production of
Ampere and the Edison minibus will begin later in 2008.

ENDS


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