Tokyo—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., will participate in AUTO SHANGHAI 2003, to be held from April 21 (Monday) through April 27 (Sunday) in Shanghai, China. The company will exhibit a wide range of its offerings, including high-performance, four-wheel-drive, and motor sports tires. To highlight its endeavors to reinforce production in China, the company will introduce Hangzhou Yokohama Tire Co., Ltd., a joint venture in Zhejiang Province that will start manufacturing radial tires for passenger vehicles in May this year.

The company will show several high-performance models at the event. These include the A.V.S dB, which offers very silent running, and will be made at Hangzhou Yokohama Tire. Also featured will be A.V.S Sport, which is fitted as standard on such distinguished marques as Porsche and Aston Martin. In the four-wheel-drive range, Yokohama Rubber will exhibit the A.V.S S/T type-1, which is standard equipment on the BRABUS MV12 from BRABUS GmbH, a preeminent German tuning company, and the GEOLANDAR A/T+II. The company will also emphasize the high performance offered by the Yokohama brand by showing the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish that featured in DIE ANOTHER DAY, the latest James Bond motion picture. That car is fitted with its A.V.S Sport, a spiked model that Yokohama Rubber developed specially for that movie.

The biannual AUTO SHANGHAI 2003 and a motor show in Beijing are China's largest such events and are held alternatively. The many participants at the Shanghai show include automobile and motorcycle manufacturers, as well as makers of related parts, technologies, testing and inspection equipment, and other players in the automotive industry. Last year's event boasted more than 1,200 exhibitors from 24 nations and about 410,000 visitors.