Toyota Motor Corp. says it is recalling 1.8 million 2005-2010 model year cars in Europe to fix a faulty accelerator pedal mechanism that could stick and not return to the idle position.

The flaw is the same one involved in the recall last month of about 2.6 million Toyota-brand vehicles in the U.S. and Canada. Toyota models involved in the European recall are the Auris, Avensis, Aygo, Corolla, iQ, RAV4 and Verso.

The accelerator assembly was supplied by U.S.-based CTS Corp. and also is the focus of the North American recall. Toyota and CTS said last week they have developed a replacement system. Toyota says it will announce later today how it plans to repair the recalled vehicles.

PSA Peugeot Citroen says it will recall about 100,000 Peugeot 107s and Citroen C1s made by its Toyota Peugeot Citroen Automobile venture in the Czech Republic. The cars share a faulty accelerator system with the Toyota Aygo also produced there.

PSA says no more than 100,000 of its cars are affected, although it did not immediately identify which model years will be recalled.

All three models use an accelerator assembly involved in Toyota Motor Corp.’s 2.6-million-car recall in North America. The campaigns are unrelated to last year’s U.S. recall of about 5.4 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles to fix a floor mat problem that could snag the accelerator pedal and prevent it from returning to the idle position.

Vladimir Antonov was forced to step down as chairman of Spyker Cars NV after a Swedish government probe in December discovered he had ties to money laundering and organized crime, reports Dagens Industri.

Sweden carried out the probe after the Dutch sports car maker emerged as the leading bidder late last year for General Motors Co.’s Saab Automobile unit.

State Secretary Hans Lindblad tells Dagens Industri that the Swedish government passed along its findings to the U.S. government, which ordered GM to halt the deal. The government currently owns nearly 61% of GM.
Antonov, CEO of Russia’s Convers Group bank, held a 30% share of Spyker’s stock. Media reports say Dutch billionaire businessman Marcel Boekhoorn has replaced Antonov as Spyker’s major investor.

Antonov’s departure apparently enabled Spyker to revive its bid. Last week GM agreed to sell Saab to Spyker for €53 million in cash and €235 million in preferred stock in the new company to be formed from Saab’s assets. Bloomberg News says GM also will get an additional €72 million from Saab’s cash flow. The Swedish government also has agreed to guarantee a €400 million loan to Saab by the European Investment Bank.

The sale is supposed to close in about two weeks. But skeptics question Spyker’s ability to complete the deal. In advance of Spyker’s shareholders’ meeting scheduled for 12 February, the Dutch shareholders’ organization VEB has asked Spyker CEO Victor Muller to offer more details about the Saab deal.

The American economy grew 5.7%, its fastest rate in six years, in the final three months of 2009, reports the U.S. Department of Commerce. Most of the improvement was caused by businesses replenishing low inventories.

The expansion compares to an annualized 2.2% growth rate in the third quarter last year. On a full-year basis, America’s gross domestic product shrank by 2.4% last year, its worst contraction since 1946.

Exports were a major contributor to growth in the fourth quarter, rising 18%; imports increased by 10.5%. They more than offset a slowdown in federal spending, sluggish consumer spending and a weak residential housing market.

Consumer spending, which typically accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, grew at a 2% annual rate in the fourth quarter, down from a 2.8% pace in the third quarter.

Without stronger consumer spending, some analysts fear the U.S. economy will cool off again after businesses replenish their inventories—activity that accounted for nearly 3.4 points of growth in the fourth quarter.

BMW AG reiterates that it expects demand for its cars and SUVs to grow to 1.3 million from 1.2 million last year, driven primarily by fast-growing markets in China, India and Brazil and a partial sales revival in the U.S.

BMW says it expects to report a pretax profit for 2009, even though group revenue fell 4.7% to €50.6 billion. Last year BMW brand sales fell 11% to 1.1 million, Mini sales declined nearly 7% to 217,000 and Rolls-Royce sales dropped 17% to 1,000.

Regionally, BMW says its group sales fell 9% to 258,000 units in Germany and more than 20% to 242,000 units in the U.S. Group sales rose 37% to 91,000 in China, 119% to 6,000 units in Brazil and 24% to 4,000 vehicles in India.

The automotive unit’s revenues fell 10% to €43.7 billion, and motorcycle revenues dropped 13% to €1.1 billion in 2009. The financial services unit was BMW’s only growth business, with revenues improving by 0.5% to €15.8 billion.

Last year, the BMW brand’s worldwide sales declined 11% to 1.1 million units. Mini sales dropped 6.8% to 217,000 cars, and Rolls Royce sales fell 17% to 1,000 units.

China’s Ministry of Commerce predicts the nation’s vehicle sales will grow by a relatively modest 10% to 15 million units this year after surging 46% to 13.6 million units in 2009.

The government tells the China Daily that last year’s robust expansion “cannot be sustained” but adds that double-digit growth is not a difficult goal.”

China is relaxing its car-related stimulus programs this year, but analysts say the country should be able to retain its position as the world’s largest national car market.

Porsche AG expects to sell slightly more cars for the year ending 31 July than it did the previous fiscal year, when it sold 75,000 units.

In a shareholders’ report released Friday, the company says it is recovering from the 40% sales plunge it suffered in the first fiscal quarter, which ended 31 October. Adds Porsche SE CEO Martin Winterkorn, “An upward trend is clearly visible.”

For the six-month period ending 31 January, company sales are down only 3%. Demand for the company’s 911 sports car and Cayenne SUV plunged, but the company sold 8,200 of its new Panamera sedans.

Kia Motors Corp. says its fourth-quarter earnings in 2009 jumped to €378 million from €34 million in the same period last year.

Operating profits for the three months ending 31 December totaled €259 million. Sales rose nearly 14% to €3.6 billion from a year earlier.

This year Kia expects its worldwide sales to surge nearly 27% to 1.9 million vehicles, led by 37% growth in China and 16% growth in the U.S.

Kia’s sales in Europe grew nearly 6% to 252,000 units last year. The company says the introduction of a redesigned Sportage SUV and a new Venga minivan should help boost sales. Kia’s owner, Hyundai Motor Co., will produce the Kia Venga at its assembly plant in the Czech Republic.

Motors Liquidation Co., the American company created to sell of General Motors Co.’s unwanted assets, seeks €1 billion in damages from BMW AG for allegedly breaking a contract to purchase GM-built transmissions.

Motors Liquidation filed its lawsuit in New York City last week. The complaint focuses on a contract BMW signed in 2004 to buy 200,000 six-speed transmissions per year from GM’s plant in Strasbourg, France, through 2015.

Wirtschaftswoche reports that BMW reduced its annual order to 150,000 two years ago. The lawsuit demands that BMW either return to purchases of 200,000 units per year or compensate the American company in some other way. BMW asserts that the transmissions did not meet its standards. Motors Liquidation says BMW kept changing its technical specifications.

Motors Liquidation is trying to sell the Strasbourg plant. Since BMW generates 60% of the factory’s workload, the factory’s value would drop sharply if BMW doesn’t purchase the transmissions.

The Italian government tells Bloomberg News it is evaluating at least six proposals to find another use for Fiat SpA’s assembly plant in Termini Imerese when auto production ceases there in 2011. At least some of the proposals would involve car production.

India’s Reva Electric Car Co. and Italian private equity firm Cape-Natixis say they will offer to make electric cars in Termini Imerese, but only if they get the plant free and receive financial support from the government.

Reva showed two concept EVs at the Frankfurt auto show in September and said at the time it planned to introduce one of them in Europe this year. Reva’s current model is the NXR, a three-door hatchback, and the company plans to add a two-seat car, the NXG, in 2011.