Dutch sports car maker Spyker Cars NV says its restructuring plan for Saab Automobile will require €715 million in financing, two-thirds of which must come from outside sources.

Spyker intends to acquire Saab from General Motors Co. for $74 million (€53 million) in cash and $326 million (€233 million) in preferred stock to GM as compensation for Saab payments owed to the American company. Spyker says it will change its name to Saab Spyker Automobiles NV and function as two separate operating companies.

But Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet says Spyker’s ability to raise the cash payment required—$50 million due immediately and the $24 million balance due in mid-July—remains uncertain. It also says that Spyker is struggling with more than €57 million in high-interest debt owed to interests headed by its former chairman, Russian billionaire Vladimir Antonov.

GM refused to sell Saab to Spyker unless Antonov stepped down after an investigation by the Swedish government said Antonov was involved in money laundering and has links to organized crime. Antonov has sold his 30% stake in Stryker to Tenaci Capital B.V., a company owned by Spyker CEO Vincent Muller. According to media reports, Dutch businessman Marcel Boekhoom helped finance the stock sale to Tenaci.

Spyker reiterates that Saab could become profitable by 2012, assuming the brand can generate annual sales of 100,000-125,000 units. Last year Saab sold about 40,000 units worldwide, down from 95,000 in 2008.

Saab’s product lineup will continue to be the 9-3 and 9-5 cars and 9-4X crossover. Spyker says it will consider adding a new small model called the 9-1 but currently lacks the funds to develop it.

Toyota Motor Corp. says the first batch of parts to fix faulty accelerator pedals in as many as 1.8 million of its cars in Europe will arrive at dealerships next week. The company estimates the worldwide campaign could cost €1.4 billion.

The European recall involves the Auris, Avensis, Aygo, Corolla, iQ, RAV4, Verso and Yaris built since February 2005. Toyota also is conducting a similar repair program covering about 2.3 million Toyota brand models in North America.

Meanwhile, Toyota says it will recall 180,000 affected vehicles in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America that were exported from the U.S. The company, confident that its repair will permanently fix a problem that can cause the pedals to bind and not return to the idle position, says its focus now is to make the repairs as quickly as possible.

In North America, Toyota will resume production of models on the recall list on Monday. The company ordered a temporary production halt that began this week.

Russia says its gross domestic product fell by 7.9% in 2009, its worst decline in 15 years, notes BBC News. It says the government had forecast an 8.5% contraction.

Declining oil exports were a major factor in last year’s shrinkage. But the BBC says Russia’s economy showed signs of revival in January as a purchasing managers index rose to 50.8 from 48.8 in December.

Renault SA and OAO AvtoVAZ say they have approved a tentative agreement to produce a variant of the Renault Logan in Russia. The plan was announced by a strategic committee set up nearly two years ago to coordinate joint projects.

Details about the vehicle and production targets were not announced. The car will be developed under Renault’s agreement last November to contribute about €361 million in engineering and technology to AvtoVAZ to help it upgrade its lineup. The companies said last year their aim is to introduce five new models by 2012: two based on the Logan, one supplied by Renault affiliate Nissan Motor Co. and two ultra-low-cost Lada cars.

Renault bought a 25% stake in AvtoVAZ in 2007, but its investment has struggled as car sales collapsed in Russia. The Russian government is investing €1.2 billion to help AvtoVAZ avoid bankruptcy.

U.S. industry sales rose to 698,300 cars and light-duty trucks in January from 657,000 units a year earlier, pushing the annualized sales rate to 10.78 million from 9.62 million in January 2009, says Autodata Corp.

Ford Motor Co. was the big winner, with year-over-year sales jumping 25% to 116,300 units, assisted by a huge jump in fleet sales. Demand for General Motors brands grew 14% to 146,300, also assisted by strong fleet sales. Sales of Chrysler vehicles fell 8% to 57,100.

Volkswagen, America’s best-selling European brand, boosted year-over-year sales by 41% to 24,600 units. BMW group sales grew 8% to 15,400, and Daimler group sales surged 23% to 15,000. Porsche sales reached 1,800 units, up almost 8%. Jaguar Land Rover’s volume slipped 3% to about 2,600 units.

Toyota Motor Corp. was the big loser in January as bad publicity about malfunctioning accelerator pedals, coupled with a sales moratorium on recalled models in the final six days of the month, stifled sales. The company’s U.S. group sales plunged 16% to 98,800 vehicles.

Sales by other Asian brands were up for Hyundai (24%), Nissan (16%) and Subaru (28%) but down for Honda group (-5%) and Suzuki (-44%). Nissan’s group sales surpassed Chrysler’s, making it America’s fifth-most-popular brand.

Passenger car registrations in Germany, which fell 5% in December, dropped 4.2% to 182,000 units last month—the lowest January volume in 10 years, reports VDIK, the country’s foreign carmaker association.

The post-incentive downturn has been widely expected. VDIK predicts full-year car sales in Germany will fall to 2.8 million-2.9 million units from 3.8 million in 2009.

Retail sales in Germany fell 1.8% on an inflation-adjusted basis last year, the steepest drop since that nation adopted the euro in 2002, reports the federal statistics service.

Yet German consumers were more resilient than the economy as a whole, which plunged 5% in 2009. Retail sales in December grew 0.8% on an adjusted annualized basis, but economists do not expect consumer spending to recover strongly this year.

Renault SA says it will unveil the Wind, its new two-seat convertible, at the Geneva auto show on 2 March. The car goes on sale in late spring.

Renault Wind

Autocar says the small roadster is derived from the Twingo and shares similar front-end styling. But the Wind will have an upgraded interior and, at 3.83 meters, is 223 mm longer. The magazine says the new model will sell for about €19,400.

The Wind features an electric-powered roof that hinges at the rear. It opens in 12 seconds by rotating about 180° into the trunk. Renault says the unusual design maintains the car’s 270-liter luggage space whether the roof is up or down.

The Wind will debut with a choice of two gasoline engines already offered in the Twingo: a 100-hp 1.2-liter engine and a 133-hp 1.6-liter unit.

BMW AG and PSA Peugeot Citroen say they have agreed to collaborate in developing the next-generation version of a four-cylinder gasoline engine they currently use in a variety of Citroen, Peugeot and Mini cars. The new engine will be designed to meet EU6 emission requirements.

The companies say they also are examining other possible areas for cooperation in the development, production and purchase of unspecified components.

Sales of new cars, trucks and buses in South Africa grew more than 15% to 38,100 units last month—the first year-over-year increase in 33 months, reports the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa. Full-year vehicle sales in 2009 were 26% below the total for 2008.

The group cautions that January’s results compare to an “extremely depressed” sales pace a year earlier when the effect of the global economic crisis surged. Still, NAAMSA predicts overall vehicle sales in the country could improve by 7%-10% this year. The group adds that vehicle exports from South Africa are likely to grow by one-third in 2010 compared to last year’s depressed volume.

The number of jobless workers in Spain topped 4 million in January for the first time in the country’s history, according to the government. Unions claim the actual jobless number is closer to 4.5 million, or about 20% of Spain’s working-age population.

Analysts say the increasing unemployment figures show that the collapse of Spain’s construction industry in 2007 continues to spread to other sectors of the economy. Markit Research notes that employment in the country’s manufacturing sector has been shrinking for more than two years, and new government figures say factory output declined more sharply from December to January.