AUPEO!® Personal Radio Coming Soon to Ford's SYNC® with AppLink in Europe

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- AUPEO!®, the personalized in-vehicle radio infotainment service, continues its worldwide expansion. The company today announced at Mobile World Congress, in this city, that the service will soon be available in Ford vehicles in Europe equipped with the SYNC® with AppLink™ feature.

Comfortably seated in their SYNC with AppLink-equipped-Ford vehicles, music lovers will be able to enjoy safely and without having to touch their smartphones while driving AUPEO!'s selection of more than 150 curated stations from all genres and time periods. The AUPEO! personalized service starts to learn the user's specific musical preferences after a genre or artist station has been chosen. The Love and Ban buttons then allow users to adjust the music stream to their tastes. These functions can be operated purely by voice control, via SYNC with AppLink, to ensure a convenient and safe music discovery experience. "This collaboration is a great opportunity to provide to Ford vehicle owners a safe and seamless enhanced music experience in their cars," said Holger G. Weiss, CEO of AUPEO!

Through this collaboration with Ford, AUPEO! Is demonstrating its determination to address the evolving needs of today's sophisticated music fans on a global level.

More than one and a half million Ford vehicles in North America are already equipped with SYNC AppLink. Among the first models to offer SYNC with AppLink in Europe is the new Ford EcoSport SUV. AUPEO! is offering 1500 selected consumers of some of the first new Ford EcoSport that will be delivered to Europe free access to an exclusive 12-month AUPEO! Premium trial.  When the trial expires, they can subscribe to AUPEO! Premium to continue to receive higher sound quality with no commercials.

About AUPEO!
Founded in Berlin in 2008, AUPEO! is a leading provider of personalized audio streams for the web and Internet-capable devices ("connected devices"). It features high-quality radio stations that allow users to compile their own individual music programs and receive recommendations for songs. AUPEO! developed especially for the fast growing market of connected-car services and is being considered today leader in this respective field. Since its acquisition in April 2013 AUPEO! has been working with Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America, a Division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, to provide a content delivery platform that complements Panasonic's automotive product lines. According to global information and analytics company IHS, Panasonic is the worldwide leader in automotive infotainment systems. 

About Ford of Europe
Ford of Europe is responsible for producing, selling and servicing Ford brand vehicles in 50 individual markets and employs approximately 47,000 employees at its wholly-owned facilities and approximately 69,000 people when joint ventures and unconsolidated businesses are included. In addition to Ford Motor Credit Company, Ford Europe operations include Ford Customer Service Division and 24 manufacturing facilities (15 wholly owned or consolidated joint venture facilities and nine unconsolidated joint venture facilities). The first Ford cars were shipped to Europe in 1903 – the same year Ford Motor Company was founded. European production started in 1911.

About Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America
Based in Peachtree City, Georgia, and with Detroit-area operations located in Farmington Hills, Mich., Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America is a division company of Newark, New Jersey-based Panasonic Corporation of North America, the principal North American subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation, which is based in Osaka, Japan, one of the world's leading developers and producers of innovative digital and other electronic products for consumer, business and industrial use. Panasonic Corporation of North America acquired AUPEO! in 2013. Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America also acts as the North American operating company of Panasonic's Automotive & Industrial Systems Company, which coordinates global automotive industry systems and components operations. For more information on Panasonic automotive, please visit: http://us.panasonic.com/automotive.