LEAR CORPORATION WINS TOTAL INTERIOR CONTRACT SOUTHFIELD, Mich., July 17 /PRNewswire - AsiaNet/ -- Lear Corporation(NYSE: LEA) has been awarded two major contracts by Indian vehicle producerMahindra and Mahindra. One contract is for the total interior design,engineering, and manufacturing to support a new sport utility vehicledeveloped by Mahindra and Mahindra which will debut in 2001. The secondcontract is for seating systems to support all current Mahindra and Mahindraproducts. "The contracts with Mahindra and Mahindra will expand both ourdesign/engineering capability and production base in India," said RandallCarron, president of Lear's Asia-Pacific Operations. "We're very pleased tohave been selected to design, engineer and manufacture the total interior forMahindra's new sport utility vehicle." Lear will establish an engineering center in Bombay to support the interiordesign program. The center will be connected electronically to Lear's networkof global engineering centers and, in addition to Mahindra, will supportLear's other customers in India. "We will design seat systems, door panels, headliners, floor and acousticsystems and instrument panels for the new vehicle," Carron said "and we'll beworking closely with Mahindra product and manufacturing engineers on thisprogram." Anticipated annual volumes for the new sport utility are initiallyprojected at 50,000 units. Lear is in the process of preparing two plants to support Mahindra'scurrent seat build requirements. These two facilities, located in Nashik andBombay respectively, will be capable of producing 125,000 seat sets annually.About 200 people are expected to be employed at the two facilities. Productionwill begin in the fourth quarter of 1998. A Fortune 500 Company, Lear Corporation is one of the world's largestautomotive suppliers, with 1997 sales of $7.3 billion. The company's world-class products are designed, engineered and manufactured by more than 54,000employees in over 190 facilities located in 28 countries. Information aboutLear and its products is available on the Internet at http://www.lear.com.SOURCE Lear CorporationCONTACT: Media: Bert Serre, 248-746-7760, or Analysts: Jonathan Peisner, 248-746-1624/ /Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com or fax, 800-758-5804,ext. 518304/ /Web site: http://www.lear.com/ (LEA)