Auto News 5

Here's a cool new city car set to create a buzz! It’s the electric-powered B0 – or B-Zero – and it’s the work of legendary Italian style house Pininfarina.A rival to the Mercedes-built Smart, it is powered by an electric engine, and uses hi-tech batteries along with a bank of fast-charging supercapacitors supplied by French company Ballore.Unveiled at the Paris Motor Show, the four-door four-seater is tipped to start production as early as 2009, at Pininfarina’s HQ in Turin. Read more ...

Unlike the two recessions of the seventies and eighties, this one (let's not quibble on definitions any more - recession is coming) started right at the top of the money cascade. We have been fascinated in the last two weeks by the banking bail-out, and absorbed by the disclosure of system failures that have been rife within banking, but hitherto invisible. Read more ...

American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM) has said it plans to invest US$40m to build its first plant in Thailand as part of its drive to expand production in Asia. Read more ...

The estate of a Macy's department store heir has sued U.S. comedian and car collector Jay Leno, saying a Manhattan garage stole the heir's 1931 Model J Duesenberg and illegally sold it to Leno in 2005. Read more ...

Poland's output of passenger cars increased by 30.2% year-on-year to 696,237 units for the January to September period, according to car market researcher Samar. Read more ...

Mando has said it has set up a 65bn won joint venture with Germany's auto parts supplier Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. Read more ...

Stuart Kerr has been named Volvo's regional president for Europe, effective immediately. This is a newly created position. Read more ...

General Motors cautiously expects to sell more of its new Opel/Vauxhall Insignia than its Vectra predecessor -- despite the shrinking upper-medium segment and the European economic downturn. Read more ...

Ford Australia on Thursday said it would cut 450 more jobs because of falling sales and the global financial crisis, taking total job losses by 2010 to 1,400. Read more ...

China's auto industry will likely begin to consolidate from next year as slowing demand and rising materials costs hit margins, an official in the country's top planning agency has said. Read more ...

While stunning new 149 hatchback takes its front-end inspiration from MiTo and 8C Competizione, sporty, steeply raked rear end is exclusive to model. Read more ...

Honda Motor has no current plans to change its earnings outlook, its president said on Thursday. Read more ...

The Chinese government has reportedly stopped new car imports from Hyundai and Kia since mid-September. Read more ...

Car output at Russia's Taganrog Automobile Plant, or TagAZ, rose 80% year-on-year to 83,159 units in the first nine months of this year, according to the Federal State Statistics Service's branch for the Rostov Region. Read more ...

Russia's 'Federal Antimonopoly Service' is set to approve AvtoVAZ's bid to buy automobile plant IzhAvto. Read more ...

Ford will build a new small car at its plant in Craiova, Romania, from 2010. Read more ...

Porsche chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking has said that profits this year should be better than might be expected. "The net result will be as forecast but our shareholders will once again be happy all round," said Wiedeking, speaking at a conference yesterday. Read more ...

Shares in Toyota and Honda fell on the Tokyo stock exchange after official US retail sales showed the biggest drop in three years, fuelling concerns an economic slump may deepen. Read more ...

German finance minister Peer Steinbrück has said he would "not be prepared to offer support for the automotive industry or promise any tax concessions." Read more ...

Ford has asked Toyota components-making unit Denso to buy some of its Mazda Motor shareholding, a Japanese newspaper said. Read more ...