Tokyo, Japan, April 26, 2018 -€“ Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501, "Hitachi") today announced it has started a collaborative creation process with Penske Corporation for Penske's next-generation data solution. The goal of the collaboration is to improve vehicle performance while leveraging Hitachi's digital and IoT technologies.

With the continuing trend toward digitalization impacting every industry, IoT and digital technologies are being increasingly adopted in the automotive field aimed at improved safety, labor optimization, fuel efficiency, and vehicle operations. Penske and Hitachi have a long history of innovation. This joint effort marks the next wave of their collaboration and shows Penske's commitment to embracing digitalization to continually improve vehicle performance for its customers.

Hitachi and Penske began their partnership in 2012 with Hitachi and Hitachi Automotive Systems sponsorship of Team Penske in the American IndyCar© Series. Since then, the two companies have built on this relationship across a wide variety of business domains to accelerate Penske's digital transformation. Since 2017, the companies have been working to utilize Penske's vehicle data to improve vehicle performance. This announcement signifies the first of many efforts to utilize artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Hitachi's IoT platform Lumada.

"We are very happy to enter into this expanded partnership with Penske Corporation," said Toshiaki Higashihara, President & CEO, Hitachi, Ltd. "This announcement signifies Hitachi's commitment to Social Innovation Business with specific focus on the transportation industry." He continues, "Our opportunity to collaborate with Penske, leveraging their extensive knowledge in transportation and logistics, and data coupled with Hitachi's operational technology and information technology expertise, is aimed at creating dramatic innovations in the fleet management field."

"We are very pleased with the progress and continued strong collaboration with our valued partners at Hitachi," said Roger Penske, Founder and Chairman, Penske Corporation. "Hitachi's solutions have shown great promise as we strive to better leverage our vehicle data in new and innovative ways that helps meet the needs of customers across our businesses now and into the future. This is a natural progression from the technical work we've accomplished together in the motorsports realm, which has helped our INDYCAR program earn 38 wins and three championships since 2012."

About Penske Corporation

Penske Corporation is a closely-held, diversified, on-highway, transportation services company whose subsidiaries operate in a variety of industry segments, including retail automotive, truck leasing, transportation logistics and professional motorsports. Penske Corporation manages businesses with revenues in excess of $26 billion, operating in more than 3,300 locations and employing over 50,000 people worldwide.