AUTO

SAIC Motor Corp aims to double the sales of its own-brand cars to 180,000 in 2010, its president said on Monday, as the top Chinese automaker seeks to tap the lucrative mid- to higher-end market currently dominated by foreign rivals.

SAIC Motor Corp, China's biggest carmaker, expects to sell about 90,000 of its own-brand vehicles this year, nearly double the original target, its president said on Monday.

Toyota Motor said it expects its China sales growth to slow next year, after strong gains in 2009 fueled by government incentives aimed at boosting the national auto sector during the global downturn.

Union representatives hope the future of Opel's 50,000 workers in Europe will become clearer when they meet on Wednesday with General Motors' interim regional chief Nick Reilly to discuss restructuring plans.

Car makers from General Motors to Toyota Motor expect China to keep providing much-needed relief from feeble car sales elsewhere next year, even as local brands raise their game to grab a bigger slice of their home market.

General Motors expects its China sales growth to drop dramatically in 2010 as the carmaker nears the end of a year of government stimulus-fueled growth in the world's biggest car market, the head of the company's China operations said on Monday.

China - Europe's biggest carmaker, Volkswagen plans to more than triple its sales in south China by 2018 as a main driver for its strategy to double sales to 2 million units in the country by that time, its China chief said on Sunday.

Nearly two dozen members of the U.S. Senate sought answers on Friday from General Motors and Chrysler on efforts to resolve complaints from dealers who lost business with the car companies.

U.S. electric sports car maker Tesla Motors plans to go public soon, two sources familiar with the matter said, amid growing interest in green technology and battery-powered vehicles.

Auto retailer and financer America's Car-Mart Inc posted better-than-expected quarterly results, helped by strong same store sales and an increase in its customer base. For the second quarter, the company reported net income of $6.3 million, or 53 cents a share, compared with $3.9 million, or 33 cents a share, a year ago.

Europe's biggest carmaker, Volkswagen, will almost double exports from its South African plant in 2010 under a 27 billion rand ($3.59 billion) global contract for right-hand drive models of its new Polo.

Heavily-indebted Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ appointed Sergei Kogonin, head of truckmaker Kamaz, to its board of directors, increasing the prospect for the creation of a state-controlled autos giant.

Ford Motor Co plans to invest 2 billion reais ($1.15 billion) in Brazil through 2015, most of it on a plant in the northeastern Bahia state, to expand production and benefit from expected growth in Latin America's largest economy, the state governor said on BandNews radio on Friday.

South Africa's existing automobile industry programme and its replacement scheme is expected to cut the trade deficit and contribute billions of dollars to gross domestic product by 2020, a government minister said on Friday.

Union leaders at Ford Motor's Volvo car unit held their first talks with China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group on Thursday but are still waiting to see Geely's financing plans for the Swedish carmaker.

Mitsubishi Fuso, the Japanese unit of market leader Daimler Trucks, aims to weatherproof the company for smaller volumes in the future in order to steer clear of the losses it will book this year.

Exide Technologies has landed a deal to sell 105,000 more batteries a year to Toyota Motor Corp, deepening its relationship with the world's top carmaker and boosting the battery company's shares.

Toyota Motor Corp's global vehicle sales rose 5 percent in October to about 640,000 units, marking the first year-on-year increase in 15 months, the world's biggest automaker said on Wednesday.

Norwegian electric car maker Think Global is gearing up to launch its vehicles in the United States and has picked a site in Indiana for its U.S. manufacturing facility, a major investor in the company said on Tuesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama underscored on Wednesday that his administration did not want to meddle in the decisions of General Motors.

World number two truckmaker Volvo said vehicle shipments tumbled in October from last year, but a rise over September deliveries offered hope the sector's headlong plunge in demand may have bottomed.

General Motors Co said on Tuesday it will unveil the U.S. production version of its Chevrolet Cruze small sedan at the Los Angeles Auto Show in December.

Ford Motor Co's Fusion mid-size sedan was named Motor Trend magazine's 2010 car of the year on Tuesday, adding to the perception that changes to the No. 2 U.S. automaker's vehicle lineup are gaining traction.

A coalition of energy companies, automakers and shipping firms unveiled on Monday their cure for America's oil addiction -- electric vehicles.

The supervisory board of Volkswagen is set to approve on Thursday contracts drafted for a merger with indebted parent Porsche SE and the partial acquisition of Porsche's sports car business, sources close to the matter told Reuters

U.S. retail sales rebounded in October as vehicle purchases rose even without support from government incentives, a Reuters survey predicted, which could allay some fears over the strength of the economy's recovery.

Previous German pledges to provide state aid to carmaker Opel no longer apply now that General Motors has said it can restructure its European arm alone, German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said.

General Motors Co. will announce on Monday it plans to start repaying a $6.7 billion loan to the U.S. Treasury by year-end due to modest operating improvements, a source knowledgeable about the situation said.

Nissan Motor Co Ltd will keep the price of its upcoming battery-powered Leaf competitive with similar-sized cars and expects to make money on the vehicle despite the cost of its launch, Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn on Friday.