General Motors Corp. is expected to stop considering last-minute bids for its Saab Automobile AB unit on Thursday and has already begun to close down the 72-year-old Swedish company.

A potential sale to Spyker Cars N.V. collapsed on 17 December, only five weeks after a previous bid by Sweden’s Koenigsegg Group also failed. Spyker quickly submitted a revised offer. Both companies lack experience in mass production and faced hurdles in lining up sufficient funding to take over Saab operations.

Bloomberg News says GM remains uneasy about a deal with Spyker because it would involve Vladimir and Alexander Antonov, who own 30% of Spyker and control RMC Convers Group, a Russian bank involved in financing Spyker’s bid.

Before rejecting Spyker’s bid last month, GM sold technology and tooling for Saab’s engines, transmissions and current-generation 9-3 and 9-5 sedans to Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. for roughly €200 million. BAIC did not buy the Saab brand itself.

BAIC says it will spend about €3.4 billion over the next three years to integrate Saab technology with its own operations. The company produces cars in China through joint ventures with Daimler AG and Hyundai Motor Co. It plans to open up its own assembly plant next year to make cars under its own “Beijing” brand.

The Russian government says it will spend 33.5 billion rubles to expand government fleets and subsidize consumer auto purchases.

Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina tells the Prime-Tass news agency that Russia will spend €242 million on a car scrappage program, €460 million on government fleet purchases and €69 million on unspecified incentives for consumers.

Toyota Motor Corp. has advised its suppliers that it intends to build about 7.5 million vehicles this year-about equal to its output in 2005 and 17% more than its production in 2009, according to The Nikkei.

The production estimate excludes Toyota’s Daihatsu and Hino affiliates, the newspaper says. It adds that Toyota’s output could be higher, because the company’s estimate does not include the impact of Japan’s decision to extend government sales incentives for the purchase of highly fuel-efficient vehicles.

Ford Motor Co. says it has reached agreement on “substantial commercial terms” to sell its Volvo Car unit to China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co.

Financial details and government approvals remain, but Ford expects to sign a definitive agreement with Geely by March and complete the sale a few months later.

Reports say Geely will finance the purchase, widely expected to cost about €1.4 billion, with a combination of cash, investor contributions and bank loans.

Ford, which bought Volvo for about €6.4 billion in 1999, has been trying to sell the brand for a year. In November The Wall Street Journal said Geely aims to boost annual Volvo sales from fewer than 400,000 units now to 1 million in five years. The company told the newspaper last month it might erect a Volvo plant in China with annual capacity of 300,000 cars.

Worldwide demand for new cars began to recover last spring and will jump 5.5% to a record high 52.7 million units this year, predicts Toronto-based Scotia Economics.

The Canadian research group’s latest Global Auto Report says global car and light-duty truck sales were nearly 50 million in 2009, down about 4% from 2008.

Car sales in western Europe will drop to 12.3 million this year from an estimated 13.4 million in 2009 as scrappage schemes expire, the report says. It predicts car sales in eastern Europe, which plunged 20% to 3.2 million last year, will expand to 3.4 million in 2010.

Scotia Economics says surging sales in Asia and Brazil will account for most of the growth. It expects car sales to jump nearly 12% to 18.8 million vehicles in Asia and 9% to nearly 4.3 million units in Brazil in 2010.

Fiat SpA says it will spend more than €8 billion over the next two years to add 17 models, update 13 others and expand annual production capacity in Italy 50% to about 900,000 vehicles.

Fiat says about two-thirds of the investment will be in Italy, much of it to retool plants near Naples and Turin. It isn’t clear if Fiat aims to achieve higher output from existing facilities or build another plant. The company operates five assembly plants in Italy now but says it will close the smallest of them, the Termini Imerese plant in Sicily, by mid-2011.

Many of the new vehicles being added in the next two years will ride on vehicle platforms developed by Chrysler Group LLC, in which Fiat holds a 20% stake.

CEO Sergio Marchionne says Fiat may relocate production of its Panda minicar to Italy from Poland in 2011, even though doing so will cost several hundred million euros. The Poland facility is expected to add production of a Chrysler-based version of the Lancia Ypsilon when output of the current model ends in Sicily next year.

President Hugo Chavez says he may force Toyota Motor Corp. and other longtime carmakers to leave Venezuela unless they meet government-imposed production quotas and agree to inject more technology into their local assembly operations.

Chavez, who has nationalized several industries in Venezuela since rising to power a decade ago, has said he wants to turn the country into a socialist state. In a television address on 23 December, Chavez said his government is “not interested” in such companies as Ford, Chrysler, General Motors and Toyota that have produced vehicles in Venezuela with previous-generation technologies.

“I suggest (those companies) gather their things and go,” he declared, threatening to expropriate facilities belonging to carmakers that fail to comply with government rules. Chavez says current carmakers in Venezuela could be replaced by companies from Belarus, China and Russia who “want to make cars here.”

Daimler AG confirms it aims to finalize a small-car partnership with another carmaker by mid-year. But CEO Dieter Zetsche tells Handelsblatt, “It could certainly also go faster than that.”

Daimler is looking for a partner to help it expand its Smart brand and develop engines for its B-Class Mercedes-Benz small cars. Zetsche confirms that Daimler is in talks with Renault SA, among others. He says any such deal will not involve an equity swap.

Labor leaders say they continue to reject General Motors Co.’s restructuring plan for its Opel/Vauxhall unit that would eliminate 8,300 jobs across Europe.

Klaus Franz, chief of Opel’s works council, indicated last month he was willing to help GM cut costs. But he tells the Frankfurter Rundschau that forced job cuts are not needed because Opel could eliminate 10,500 jobs by 2013 through simple attrition.

Unions agreed to €265 million in concessions late last year when it appeared that GM was ready to sell a 55% controlling interest in Opel to Magna International Inc. and OAO Sberbank. Those bidders indicated they would eliminate 10,000 jobs across Europe, and GM said repeatedly that it would not approve a sale unless labor agreed to such cuts.

But GM decided on 3 November not to sell Opel. Franz promptly withdrew the union’s agreed concessions and declared they would not be reconsidered until GM submitted a detailed five-year recovery plan for Opel that included investment plans, projected staffing levels, production forecasts and sales goals.

Volkswagen AG’s Audi unit says it will spend Û7.3 billion from now to 2012 to upgrade plants, pursue such options as electric propulsion and expand its model lineup to 42 from 34.

This funding is part of the nearly Û26 billion VW plans to invest over the three-year period on manufacturing upgrades and new products for its 10 brands. VW has said it wants to overtake Toyota Motor Corp. as the world’s highest-volume carmaker by 2018.

Among Audi’s upcoming models are the A1 small sedan, A7 large luxury coupe, Q5 hybrid SUV and E-tron electric sports car.

Audi sold about 925,000 vehicles in 2009 and hopes to reach annual sales of 1.5 million vehicles by 2016. That volume would be equal to the target set for 2012 by rival Mercedes-Benz and about 100,000 units below luxury segment leader BMW AG’s sales goal for that date.

At least four companies are bidding to acquire the retractable hardtop roof system business of bankrupt Wilhelm Karmann GmbH.

Media reports say Canada’s Magna International Inc. is the most likely bidder among a group that also includes CEI Automotive, Nordwind Capital and Vorwerk Autotec.

In November Volkswagen AG acquired Karmann’s assembly plant in Osnabruek, Germany. VW plans to produce a redesigned Golf convertible there in 2011.

The U.S. has approved a proposal by Chrysler Group LLC to pay CEO Sergio Marchionne in the form of restricted stock worth $600,000 (about €419,000) per year.

The payments would be made retroactive to last June, when Fiat SpA acquired 20% of the American company. The compensation would be in addition to the salary Marchionne receives as Fiat SpA’s CEO and for his work at Chrysler on Fiat’s behalf.

Chrysler’s proposal required the approval of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which owns 9.9% of the American carmaker and has loaned the company $14.3 billion (€10 billion). The government says Marchionne cannot sell the Chrysler stock he receives for at least three years and only after the company repays its government loans.

Consumer prices in Germany, which grew by an annualized 0.3% in November, accelerated to 0.8% last month, according to the Federal Statistics Office. It was the highest monthly growth rate since April.

But analysts tell Bloomberg News the surge was driven almost entirely by rising crude oil prices. They say underlying inflation is likely to remain low for many months.

Prices in the 16-member eurozone, which shrank by 0.1% in November, grew by 0.5% last month.

The European Central Bank tells Bloomberg it does not expect inflation to rise above the ECB’s preferred ceiling of 2%.

Petronas, Malaysia’s state-owned energy company, has signed a five-year deal to be title sponsor for Daimler AG’s Mercedes Formula One racing team.

The former Brawn GP team, previously owned by Honda Motor Co., won the driver and constructor championships in 2009. It was acquired by Daimler in December and will be known this season as the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team.

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who retired from F1 three years ago, is widely expected to join the team as a driver this year. Mercedes has already signed Nico Rosberg as its other driver. Petronas also sponsors the F1 race in Malaysia, which is to be held this year on 4 April.

The European Commission says it will accept comments until 10 February on its plan to extend for another three years an exemption that allows carmakers to operate exclusive car repair networks in the 27-member EU.

The EC has been trying for years to loosen OEM control over dealers. The commission wants to eliminate antitrust exemptions for new-car sales in May when the current block exemption expires. It proposes to extend the exemption for repair operations because it says that sector is “more prone to competition problems.”

The EC’s extension would apply only to carmakers who control less than 30% of the market. The European Council for Motor Trades and Repairs objects, complaining that an extension will enable carmakers to limit competition.

Hyundai Motor Co. says its global sales grew 10% to 3.1 million vehicles last year, aided by scrappage schemes in Europe and the U.S. that boosted demand for the company’s fuel-efficient models.

Hyundai’s Kia Motors Corp. affiliate says its sales grew 9% to 1.53 million vehicles last year. The South Korean carmaker predicts its sales will reach nearly 2 million in 2010.

Hyundai reports that government incentive programs pushed its share of the worldwide auto market to a record 5.2% through October 2009. But it warns that this year’s business environment “will likely deteriorate” as scrappage programs end. In the U.S., the company is extending through 2010 a program that allows buyers to return a car if they lose their jobs.

Porsche SE has cancelled an eight-year contract under which Magna International Inc.’s Magna Steyr unit would produce Boxster and Cayman sports cars beginning in 2012.

Porsche tells Bloomberg News that Magna has already been paid undisclosed compensation for the scrapped deal.

Production plans for the two cars changed after Volkswagen AG acquired 49.9% of Porsche in December. VW plans to integrate the company into its own operations before the end of 2011.

PSA Peugeot Citroen has named Gilles Vidal and Thierry Metroz as the chief designers for its Peugeot and Citroen brands, respectively. Both men, who begin their jobs today, will report to PSA Design Director Jean-Pierre Ploue.

PSA says a primary goal for the two men is to better differentiate the two brands, with Peugeot focusing on sporty cars and Citroen concentrating on comfort and luxury.

Vidal, 37, who studied at the Art Center College of Design in Vevey, Switzerland, joined PSA in 1996. He was put in charge of concept cars for Peugeot and last year designed the Peugeot BB1 concept, which combines the features of two- and four-wheel vehicles.

Metroz, 46, graduated from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Appliques et des Metiers d’Art. He was director of exterior design for Renault SA before leaving that post in July.

General Motors Corp.’s U.S. dealers sold off virtually all remaining Pontiac and Saturn vehicles by the end of last week. GM is discontinuing both brands.

The company offered consumers zero percent financing or rebates of $6,500 (about €4,500) on remaining models. It also gave dealers $7,000 (nearly €4,900) for each Pontiac or Saturn they kept or sold to rental-fleet buyers.

A United Nations panel attempting to set global safety standards for hybrid and electric cars appears likely to adopt several of Japan’s safety rules for such vehicles, according to The Nikkei.

The Tokyo-based newspaper notes that accepting Japanese standards would benefit Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., currently the world’s largest producers of hybrids.

The UN guidelines, which are expected to be adopted by the end of this year, are used by the members of the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations to guide development of local standards. Forum members include Europe, China, Japan and the U.S.