Luxembourg-based Genii Capital tells Reuters that plans to liquidate Saab Automobile will not move forward until General Motors Co. decides whether to reject Genii’s bid for the Swedish carmaker.

GM also is evaluating a revised bid from Spyker Cars NV. The American company confirms to Reuters that negotiations could continue through mid-February. GM says both bidders still must clarify how they intend to finance the purchase.

GM has been trying to sell Saab for a year and announced in December it was beginning to wind down the unit even as negotiations to sell it continued. Earlier this month GM said it has hired American restructuring firm AlixPartners LLP to shut down Saab. AlixPartners helped GM restructure last year, and its vice chairman is CEO of Motors Liquidation Co., the entity left to dispose of GM assets left behind in bankruptcy court.

PSA Peugeot Citroen says it has eliminated 5,700 jobs in France under a voluntary departure program begun last year—about 60% more than it expected. The program, which expires at the end of March, has reduced the company’s domestic workforce to fewer than 99,000 people. About 55% of the company’s total workforce is located in France.

Mitsubishi ASX crossover

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will unveil its new ASX compact crossover at the Geneva auto show on 2 March. The five-passenger vehicle goes on sale in Europe this spring.

The ASX is a variant of the Mitsubishi RVR, which debuts in Japan next month. The five-passenger crossover is smaller than the Mitsubishi Outlander and will be powered by a 1.8-liter turbocharged direct-injection diesel engine mated to a six-speed manual gearbox and automatic stop-start system.

This week Kia Motors Corp. began production of the Hyundai ix35 crossover vehicle at its assembly plant near Zilina, Slovakia. The facility will add the redesigned Kia Sportage SUV in June. Kia is 51% owned by Hyundai Motor Co.

Last year the Zilina plant produced 150,000 vehicles, including 57,000 Kia cee’d small cars. About 21% of the facility’s output is exported to Russia. This week the three-year-old plant made its 500,000th car.

In addition, the plant also has begun making Kia’s new 1.4-liter diesel engine, which will be used in the Venga supermini. The facility also makes 1.4- and 1.6-liter gasoline engines and 1.6- and 2.0-liter diesel engines. Last year the plant, which has annual capacity of 300,000 engines, made 243,000 powerplants.

Consumer prices in the U.K. surged from an annualized 1.9% in November to 2.9% in December, says the Office for National Statistics. It was the largest monthly jump since the office began compiling comparable inflation data 13 years ago.

Core inflation—which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco—jumped 2.8% in December, also a 13-year record. The Bank of England expects inflation to accelerate this year but drop to its 2% target rate by 2012. Analysts say it’s too early to know if December’s higher inflation will persist, but many expect a high rate in January too.

Analysts note that last month’s price jump was due in part to a comparison with an unusual year-ago period in which oil prices fell and the value-added tax was reduced.

Ford Motor Co. tells Bloomberg Television in London it will build a chassis-cab version of its next-generation Transit van in Southampton, U.K., thus ensuring that the plant will remain open.

Joe Greenwell, chairman of Ford U.K., tells Bloomberg there is a “good business proposition” for making the chassis-cab units there. Such vehicles are used by other outfitters to make ambulances, motorhomes and other specialty vehicles.

The Southampton facility has been making current-model Transit vans but laid off 500 workers last year because of lower sales. Transit sales in Europe’s top 19 markets fell 30% to 117,000 units last year.

Tata Motors Ltd.’s Jaguar Land Rover unit has appointed David Betteley as director of financial services. He previously was a vice president at Toyota Motor Corp. with responsibility for that company’s financial services in Africa, Europe and the U.K.

In his new job, Betteley will oversee Jaguar and Land Rover’s worldwide financial services. JLR’s financial services are provided by Fiat Credit Agricole in Europe, Chase Manhattan in the U.S. and Wesbank in South Africa. The three companies replaced Ford Motor Credit Co. after JLR was sold to Tata in 2008.

Hybrid Kinetic Motors Corp., a Chinese-American startup firm based in California, has hired Italdesign Guigiaro to design an array of eight sedans, crossovers, SUVs, minivans and light commercial models for the U.S. market.

HK Motors plans to build the vehicles at a rate of 300,000 annually at a new assembly plant in Alabama beginning in 2013.

Italdesign describes the $500 million deal as its largest ever. The company says it will invest $4.5 billion (€3.1 billion) in the project but does not indicate how it is raising the funds.

The venture’s founder is Yung Benjamin Yeung, the former CEO of Brilliance China, who was ousted in a dispute with the Chinese government. When he was at Brilliance, Yeung hired Italdesign to design the Zhonghua sedan, which was introduced in 2001 as China’s first modern-era domestic car.

PSA Peugeot Citroen says it has been approved to open a bank in Russia through its Banque PSA Finance unit.

Bank PSA Finance RUS will be one of the first automotive captive finance companies authorized to do business in Russia. The bank will offer consumer and dealer financing for Peugeot and Citroen operations in Russia. Banque PSA Finance now does business in 24 countries.

Last year, PSA raised its market share in Russia to 2.9% from 2.1% in 2008. In March, the company will launch production at its assembly plant in Kaluga.

The U.K.’s Group Lotus plc has named Robert Hentschel as director of its Lotus Engineering division. The unit provides third-party consultancy work—including major projects for three Chinese clients—and will focus on electronics, driving dynamics and lightweight body structures.

Hentschel previously was chief operating officer for the North American unit of EDAG Engineering Design AG. He also headed that company’s electrical/electronics business unit.

Hentschel is the latest in several senior staff appointments at Group Lotus, which is owned by Malaysian carmaker Proton Bhd (Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional). Last October Dany Bahar, former head of global car sales and Formula One marketing at Ferrari SpA, joined as CEO. Last month Donato Coco, Ferrari’s design director, joined Lotus as director of design.