Government scrappage programs helped boost year-on-year car sales last month by 43% to 265,000 units in France and 25% to 90,600 cars in Spain, according to carmaker associations in the two countries.

Passenger car and commercial vehicle sales in France totaled 2.64 million last year, up 5% from 2008, reports CCFA. Analysts warn that demand could slump as the country’s scrappage incentive is reduced to €700 from €1,000. Renault SA says it will pay its customers the €300 difference over the next two months. The company tells BFM radio it expects strong sales in France through the next six months.

December sales in Spain topped year-ago levels for the fourth straight month, according to ANFAC.

Experts predict year-on-year demand will remain roughly 25% higher through June but then slow when the government raises the value-added tax by two percentage points to 18% in July. Total sales in Spain this year are expected to equal last year’s 953,000, which represents an 18% drop from 2008.

Robert Bosch GmbH says strong growth in emerging markets will boost worldwide sales for its automotive unit to more than €24 billion this year from €22 billion in 2009. Sales by the unit were €27.5 billion in 2008.

Automotive Group Chairman Bernd Bohr says global sales to the auto sector won’t return to pre-recession levels until 2012-and not until at least 2015 in such mature markets as Europe, Japan and the U.S.

Bohr describes 2009 as one of the most difficult in Bosch’s 125-year history. But he anticipates renewed growth because carmakers have completed their inventory adjustments. He also points out that reviving demand for midsize and large vehicles, which use more Bosch components, will help bolster revenue.

Lilli Bertone, the 74-year-old widow of the famed Italian designer Nuccio Bertone, has purchased the rights to the Bertone trademark from an Italian bankruptcy court and is relaunching the company’s Bertone Cento Sri design unit.

She spent between €1.5 million and €3 million to retain the trademark and company patents, according to media reports.

Carrozzeria Bertone SpA went bankrupt in 2008, and the company’s production operations were acquired by Fiat SpA last August. Lilli Bertone says Bertone Cento and its staff of 200 will concentrate on design and engineering projects for the auto and railroad industries.

The famed Bertone studio’s many designs include the Alfa Romeo Giulia GT and the Lamborghini Miura. The company was started in Turin in 1912 by Giovanni Bertone. His son Nuccio expanded the operations, but the company fell into decline after his death in 1997.

Mercedes-Benz is moving ahead with a production version of the ConceptFascination wagon it showed at last year’s Paris auto show, according to Autocar, which cites an unnamed source.

The car will be built at Daimler AG’s Sindelfingen plant, debuting in 2012 as a four-door CLS wagon. The car will compete with the BMW 5 Series GT and upcoming Audi A7.

Autocar says the wagon will be powered by a choice of new V-6 and V-8 engines, dubbed MoVe Generation engines, which debuts in the redesigned CL touring coupe in June. The engines, which feature turbocharging and direct gasoline injection, are expected to be 25% more fuel efficient than the company’s current-generation engines.

General Motors Co. sold a record 1.83 million vehicles in China last year compared to 1.1 million units in 2008. The surge raised GM’s market share by 1.3 points to 13.4%.

GM says it expects slower growth this year but expects another record sales result for the company.

Overall car sales in China jumped by more than 40% last year, in part because of aggressive government programs to support the economy. Tax cuts, easier credit and special incentives for rural consumers all helped generate record demand for vehicles in China last year. But Beijing said last month it will ease tax incentives this year on vehicles with engines displacing no more than 1.6 liters.

A court in Seoul ruled late last month that bankrupt SsangYong Motor Co. will be allowed to attempt to revive itself by swapping debt for equity with a new owner.

The South Korean company, which has been under bankruptcy protection since last February, aims to find a new owner by the end of 2010. SsangYong vows to return to profitability within three years.

The SUV maker collapsed after its former owner, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., refused to invest further in the company. Sales plunged by two-thirds last year, and the company endured a 77-day plant occupation by fired workers last summer after suggesting it needed to reduce its workforce by 37%, or 2,600 people, to avoid liquidation.

SsangYong says the court overruled foreign creditors who made “irrational requests” in opposing the turnaround plan. The company submitted a petition to the court from suppliers, politicians, employees, union leaders and company managers urging approval of the plan.

The price of crude oil jumped by $2.15 per barrel yesterday, closing at $81.51 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the eighth straight day of rising prices and the highest close since early October 2008.

Analysts attribute the surge to indications that the global economy is expanding again, coupled with the onset of cold winter weather in China, Europe and North America.

Faurecia Interior Systems USA Inc. has been ordered to pay €7 million to Multimatic Inc., a Canadian company that sued after Faurecia chose a different vendor to supply instrument panel components for Chrysler Group LLC.

A jury ruled in Multimatic’s favor in 2007, and an appeals court upheld that ruling in late December. Multimatic argued that Faurecia had breached a confidentiality clause when it chose another vendor in 2005 to make instrument panel crossbeams for two Chrysler models produced outside Detroit.

Faurecia and Multimatic signed a letter of intent in 2003 to work together on the program. But they never agreed on pricing, so Faurecia partnered instead with Brown Corp.

Reva Electric Car Co. Ltd. tells Bloomberg News it plans to make electric vehicles through joint venture plants designed to operate profitably with annual output as low as 5,000 units.

The company says it aims to choose a partner for a U.S. plant by summer. It also hopes to establish similar facilities in Europe, southeast Asia and South America within the next few years.

Reva was formed nearly 16 years ago and has more than 2,000 EVs operating in London, where the cars are called G-Whiz. The company said nearly a year ago that it was building a distribution network in Europe, South America and parts of Asia.

The company has suggested ambitious sales goals for years, including a reported plan in 2002 to sell 250,000 small EVs in Europe in 10 years. It tells Bloomberg it is building an EV plant in southern India that can make 30,000 units per year, a sales volume it hopes to reach by 2012.

Reva showed two EV concepts at last year’s Frankfurt auto show. It plans to begin selling one of them, the Reva NXR, this fall at a price of about Û15,000. The four-passenger hatchback has a reported range of 160 km per charge and top speed of 104 km/hr.

Reva’s technology is being used in a battery-powered Chevrolet Spark small car displayed by General Motors Co. this week at the New Delhi auto show. Last year the two companies agreed to partner on the co-development of at least one low-cost EV.