PRESS RELEASE

Nissan Honored by U.S. EPA for Second Consecutive Year

-- Nissan's top environmental officer receives this year's EPA award
for exceptional leadership in protecting the Earth's climate --

WASHINGTON, DC (Oct. 31, 2000) For the second consecutive year, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (NML) received top honors from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) as the recipient of the prestigious 2000 Climate Protection Award.
The individual award honors were given to Mr. Nobuo Okubo, executive vice president of NML and chairman of Nissan's Environmental Management Committee. He was given the award for his leadership in developing advanced vehicle technologies that have contributed to significant improvements in fuel economy of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles, climate protection and environment protection.
The U.S. EPA presented 19 awards at the 2000 Earth Technologies Forum in Washington. The awards recognize individuals and companies that demonstrate their commitment to the environment through exceptional leadership, personal dedication and technical achievements.
"I am honored to have been selected by the EPA and an international panel of judges to receive this award," said Okubo. "The award gives tremendous encouragement to the engineers and production teams to continue in their past-breaking efforts to address the environmental impact of transportation on climate change."

Nissan's most recent and significant environmental accomplishments include:

The first automobile manufacturer in the U.S. to install the equipment for recovery of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC-12) refrigerants at all its U.S. dealerships.
Among the first automakers worldwide to eliminate the use of CFCs as a foaming and cleaning agent in manufacturing processes.
Nissan was the only automaker in 1997 to receive the EPA's "Best of the Best" award for protecting the stratospheric ozone layer.
Nissan was the only automaker in 1999 to receive the EPA Climate Protection Award for its leadership in global warming, HFC reduction and fuel economy improvements.
Nissan was one of the first automakers in 1999 to demonstrate a fuel cell vehicle with hydrogen supplied by an on-board methanol-reforming system.
Nissan is curbing HFC emissions in Japan where there is no government regulation regarding HFCs.
The first automobile manufacturer in the world to introduce a powertrain system combining direct-injection gasoline (DiG) engine with a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The DiG-CVT technology was honored with the Energy Conservation Prize from the director general of Japan's Agency of Natural Resources and Energy.
Development of the Nissan Sentra CA, a gasoline-fueled Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV) which emits about one-fourth of the unburned hydrocarbon and one-tenth of the oxides of nitrogen as the cleanest gasoline-powered car now sold in California. The California Air Resources Board certified the technologies used in the Sentra CA last fall.

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NISSAN'S ENVIRONMENTAL MILESTONES

1970s		Environmental Management Department established in Japan Corporate Environmental Management Rules developed Establishment of an in-house waste treatment system in Japan
1980s		Promotion of the installation of facilities and equipment for recycling waste into reusable resources
1981	March	Presented with Chairman's Award by the Clean Japan Center recognizing the Tochigi assembly plant's recycling efforts
1989	February	CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) Committee formed with worldwide membership
1989	November	CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) Committee formed with worldwide membership
1990	June	Discontinuation of all use of CFC foaming agents
1991	June	Commercialization of an ozone-safe air-conditioning system
1991	December	Nissan is the sole automaker to be presented with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award for introduction of vehicles with ozone-safe air conditioning systems
1992	February	Bumper recycling program begun in Europe and Japan
	April	Discontinuation of all CFCs in washing agents
	May	Electric Vehicle Committee established with worldwide membership
1993	February	Environmental Management Committee established in Japan
	October	Nissan presented with Chairman's Award by the Recycling Promotion Council recognizing Nissan's bumper recycling programs
	December	Cedric EV goes on sale in Japan
1994	May	Commercialization of lean-burn engines
	April	Nissan received third Global Environmental Award by the World Wide Fund for Nature Japan recognizing Nissan's manufacturing plants' reduction and recycling of waste into reusable resources
	July	Commercialization of non-CFC air conditioning retrofit kits
1995	March	Discontinuation of all use of trichloroethane
1995	June	Establishment of worldwide Environmental Network Meeting
1996	May	Recycling Promotion Department established
1997	February	Launch of Prairie Joy EV in Japan
1997	September	Only automaker to receive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Best of the Best" award for efforts to protect the stratospheric ozone layer
1998	January	The Nissan Altra EV, the only electric vehicle with lithium-ion batteries, is introduced.
	June	Commercialization of a direct-injection diesel engine (NEO Di)
	September	Commercialization of a direct-injection gasoline engine mated with HYPER CVT
1999	March	Obtain ISO 14001 certification for product planning and development process
	April	Hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle demonstration fleet begins in Japan
	May	Fuel-cell vehicle demonstration fleet begins in Japan
	September	Only automaker to receive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 1999 Climate Protection award for its leadership in global warming, HFC reduction and fuel economy improvements
	November	California Air Resources Board certified the 1.8-liter gasoline-fueled 2000 model year Sentra as the first Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle.