If you throw all the products we buy and the services we use in one basket, then add up the price tag, that's the Gross Domestic Product, which is the primary metric economists use to assess the economic health of a country or region.

The easy part of calculating GDP is the calculation itself: C+I+G+(X-M)=GDP. Got it? No? Well, add Consumption, Investment by companies, Government purchases, and then take the product of eXports (calling it 'E' would lack sexiness) minus iMports ('I' was taken). Viola! GDP.

Still don't get it? Well, knowing the components helps. Consumption is the biggest component, and it's a tally of the cost of all the goods and services we buy. Investment is what companies spend on the real assets they own, plus the value of the inventory that we haven't gobbled up through consumption. Government purchases are what the Feds pay money for (whether it be highways or fighter jets, though big social programs, like welfare, aren't counted). And then we calculate the difference between the goods and services we¿re sending to other countries and the stuff we're bringing in.

Good. That explains it, except there's a catch. Inflation has a habit of distorting the numbers, so economists talk about either Nominal GDP or Real GDP. In fact, Real GDP isn't necessarily "real" for most folks, since it takes any inflation out. Nominal GDP includes the effects of inflation. (There's something called the implicit price deflator which is a calculation using the two, but we'll spare you the details.)

So, now that we know GDP, why do we want to? Well, it's good to compare different markets. And watching the trend shows whether a given economy is growing (good), stagnating (not so good), or shrinking (very not so good). When GDP goes down two quarters in a row, we're officially in a recession.

For the record, GDP is released at the end of each month, with most reporting ¿preliminary¿ data for the previous month. But you won't get final GDP numbers for the fourth quarter of a year until the very end of the first quarter of the next year. After all, it's not an easy number to calculate.

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

UQM Technologies CEO William G. Rankin to Present at the Capstone Investments Small-Cap Investor Conference in Milwaukee on June 18, 2008

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Comtex

FREDERICK, Colo., Jun 12, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----UQM TECHNOLOGIES, INC. (AMEX:UQM), a developer of alternative energy technologies, announced today that its Chief Executive Officer, William G. Rankin, will present at the Capstone Investments Small-Cap Investor Conference on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 3:30 p.m. The conference will be held at the Midwest Airlines Center.

Mr. Rankin will give an overview of UQM Technologies and its role and opportunities as a developer and producer of energy efficient motors, generators and power electronic controls for a variety of alternative energy sector applications including electric, hybrid electric and fuel cell electric vehicles.

More information about the conference can be found at www.capstoneinvestments.com.

UQM Technologies, Inc. is a developer and manufacturer of power dense, high efficiency electric motors, generators and power electronic controllers for the automotive, aerospace, medical, military and industrial markets. A major emphasis of the Company is developing products for the alternative energy technologies sector including propulsion systems for electric, hybrid electric and fuel cell electric vehicles, under-the-hood power accessories and other vehicle auxiliaries and distributed power generation applications. The Company's headquarters, engineering and product development center, and motor manufacturing operation are located in Frederick, Colorado. For more information on the Company, please visit its worldwide website at www.uqm.com.

This Release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act. These statements appear in a number of places in this Release and include statements regarding our plans, beliefs or current expectations, including those plans, beliefs and expectations of our officers and directors with respect to, among other things the development of markets for our products and the adequacy of our cash balances and liquidity to meet future operating needs. Important Risk Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements are contained in our Form 10-K, filed May 22, 2008, which is available through our website at www.uqm.com or at www.sec.gov.

SOURCE: UQM Technologies, Inc.

BPC Financial Marketing John Baldiserra,
   800-368-1217 or UQM Technologies, Inc. Donald A. French, 303-278-2002

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