He says the company can post a net profit for the first time since emerging from bankruptcy protection if it gets more favorable financing terms.

Chrysler owes the U.S. government $5.8 billion and the Canadian government $1.6 billion. The money is part of a $12.5 billion loan package that funded Chrysler’s bankruptcy in 2009.

Marchionne also is CEO of Italian car company Fiat. He told reporters Monday at the Detroit auto show that Fiat’s industrial unit is interested in buying Volkswagen’s interest in the MAN and Scania commercial truck units and is not interested in selling Alfa Romeo to Volkswagen. Hartford Courant

According to documents from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) and the Truck Manufacturers Association, the number of vehicles sold in December 2010 alone came up to 13,749 units, a 1.1-percent improvement from the 13,596 units sold in the same month the year before.

Total commercial vehicle sales last year were placed at 109,799 units, growing 27.4 percent from 2009’s 86,216 units. This segment accounted for 65.2 percent of overall sales.

The light commercial vehicle sub-segment—composed of pickup trucks, vans, compact wagons and full-size sports utility vehicles—accounted for the bulk of commercial vehicle sales during the period at 69,754 units in 2010, up 32.3 percent from the 52,708 units registered the year before.

Asian utility vehicles added another 36,903 units in sales, a 21.9-percent jump from 2009’s 30,262 units.

Passenger car sales also registered a 27-percent growth to 58,691 units in 2010 from the previous year’s 46,228 units.

Campi president Elizabeth Lee said this year was expected to be another good year for the auto industry due to a number of reasons: sustained business and consumer confidence, gross domestic product growth, stable foreign exchange environment, positive forecasts for overseas Filipino workers’ remittances, and manageable inflation rate projections.

The presence of attractive financing packages and the launch of more new vehicle models would likewise push the auto industry’s growth this year, she added.

For 2011, she said the industry was expecting growth of 4-5 percent.

In 2010, Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. continued to lead the pack, with sales of 56,855 units, or a market share of 33.7 percent.

Landing in second was Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp., which cornered 19.2 percent of the market on 2010 sales of 32,422 units.

Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. occupied the third spot with 18,696 units in sales or an 11.1-percent share of the pie. Hyundai’s own data showed, however, that the company sold a total of 20,172 units last year. By Abigail L. Ho, Philippine Daily Inquirer

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a statutory body under the power ministry, along with the Ministry of Road and Surface Transport has finalised Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency — where the fuel economy of an entire fleet of a car manufacturing company is measured.

“There is a fair degree of movement on standards and labelling for automobiles and the principles on which this will be done have been largely agreed to. So I presume that very soon we should be able to announce the standards and labelling programmes for automobiles,” BEE Director General Ajay Mathur told IANS.

However, it will take some time before this is implemented.

The BEE has been mandated by the Prime Minister’s Office to stipulate the norms under the Energy Conservation Act.

The labelling scheme was launched in 2006 and is currently invoked for equipments/appliances like frost-free refrigerators, tubular fluorescent lamps, room air-conditioners, direct cool refrigerator, distribution transformer, induction motors, pump sets, ceiling fans, LPG, electric geysers and colour TVs.

“Standards and labelling will be done for automobiles — SUVs, cars, other four wheelers — but it doesn’t include trucks and two-wheelers. After we complete this we will start the process of how we can enhance the fuel efficiency of two-wheelers and trucks,” said Mathur.

Under the scheme, in a stipulated time span all vehicles would have to follow star ratings or else they will not be allowed to sell.

Earlier, the BEE was considering to have a minimum energy performance standard for each model, but then it was realised that some units of security vehicles may have heavy energy requirement.

“Therefore we thought of limiting it to the manufacturer to decide how they would offset such vehicles with more efficient vehicles, so that they are able to reach a prescribed standard,” he said.

This would mean that a company can sell a polluting vehicle if it is offset by a highly fuel-efficient vehicle in its basket and the average fuel efficiency of the entire segment is adhered to.

To make it easy for the automobile industry to adopt the standards, the BEE has planned to harmonise the energy efficiency labelling with emission norms.

“We have decided that the standards would be announced for the year that harmonizes with the requirements on the emissions side. For example, if the next Bharat norm comes in 2015 our standard will also come into force in 2015,” he said.

“We are focussing on a long-term approach. So we have something in 2015 and something in 2020, so that the industry is very comfortable and knows what the long-term picture is and can make their designs and investments accordingly,” he said.

“We have also agreed on a common database for fuel efficiency numbers (limits) and our discussions are currently on this,” Mathur said.

The BEE has got positive response from the industry, which has assured all cooperation.

“The automobile industry takes some time before it  does the designs and makes changes in its production lines and bring things into the field. The discussions have been very positive,” he said.

According to official figures, India has 14 million cars and three million SUVs.

At present the automobile industry is growing at a rate of 14 to 17 percent per annum and annual sales growth is over 12 percent.

The objectives of the Standards and Labelling Programme is to provide the consumer an informed choice about the energy saving, and thereby the cost saving potential of the equipment. This is expected to impact the energy savings in the medium and long run while at the same time it will position the domestic industry to compete in such markets

where norms for energy efficiency are mandatory. Deccan Herald

Here are some of the partnerships and plans announced as carmakers prepared for the Paris Auto Show, which opens to the media on Thursday and the public on Saturday.

VOLKSWAGEN/ALFA ROMEO

Volkswagen Chairman Ferdinand Piech has set his sights on Fiat’s Alfa Romeo brand as a thirteenth brand in his vast automotive empire. Fiat has officially denied any interest in selling.

NISSAN/DAIMLER

Infiniti, the luxury brand of Nissan, will hold talks with Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler about sharing an existing Daimler sedan car platform and its engines, a senior Nissan executive said. Renault-Nissan and Daimler signed a cooperation accord earlier this year.

SAAB/BMW

Loss-making Swedish carmaker Saab is to use BMW engines in a move by Dutch owner Spyker to help boost Saab’s recovery and appeal.

PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN/MITSUBISH

PSA and Mitsubishi agreed to develop electric versions of the Peugeot Partner and the Citroen Berlingo light commercial vehicles in PSA’s Vigo factory in Spain. The two groups already work together in some areas and have discussed a capital alliance but said in March they had failed to agree terms.

FORD/PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN

U.S. carmaker Ford and PSA said they would develop a range of diesel engines to comply with new EU regulations, strengthening their existing partnership in that area.

RENAULT-NISSAN/GENERAL MOTORS

Renault and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said in a newspaper interview the Renault-Nissan alliance was still interested in closer ties with GM. The Guardians

Under the terms of the new regional subsidy plan, plug-in hybrid car makers can qualify for up to 30,000 yuan ($4,412) subsidy for each sale and wholly electric car makers can qualify for up to 60,000 yuan per unit sold, said Shenzhen Mayor Xu Qin on Tuesday.

Private car buyers in the city can qualify for a subsidy of 9,000 yuan for the purchase of an energy-efficient car.

Electric carmaker BYD Co, a key beneficiary of the extra government subsidy program, saw its shares gain 5.91 percent to HK$60 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

The new regional program is based on a national program for five pilot cities – Shenzhen, Shanghai, Changchun, Hangzhou and Hefei – to offer subsidies of up to 50,000 yuan to buyers of plug-in hybrids and subsidies of up to 60,000 yuan to buyers of wholly electric vehicles starting June 1.

Under the new arrangement, BYD vehicles including its hybrid F3DM and the wholly electric e6, can enjoy both national and regional subsidies or a combined deduction of 80,000 yuan or 120,000 yuan, which experts believe is a significant attraction for buyers.

BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu said the company intends to reduce electric vehicle costs to a range similar to non-energy efficient cars within two years.

He also said that the company has set up 11 dealerships to offer sales and service for new energy cars.

BYD launched an upgraded version of its existing F3DM hybrid model on Tuesday at a post-subsidy price of 89,800 yuan. A total of 25,000 new-energy cars will be on the streets of Shenzhen by 2012, estimated Mayor Xu.

BYD, in which billionaire Warren Buffett holds a 10 percent stake, caught the world’s attention last year with its electric car innovation.

The young automaker is set to start selling its e6 electric car in the United States later this year, at around $40,000. It is also planning to launch the e6 in Europe early next year, with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.

BYD has also started assembling cars in Russia, in cooperation with local partner TagAZ, according to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday.

BYD Co’s vehicle sales in June fell 21 percent to 35,356 units from May, Chinese website NetEase reported on Tuesday, citing the company. June sales rose 3 percent from a year earlier, the report said. China Daily

The message of the 348-mile road trip by the executive, Gherardo Corsini, who heads the electric vehicle project, was straightforward _ the car works.

“Getting lots of curious looks at the rest area,” one of Mr. Corsini’s passengers, Dietmar Thate, manager of social media for Opel, said via Twitter after the car made a short stop on Sunday.

The hybrid car is meant to run on batteries for about 60 km before a gasoline-powered generator kicks in for longer trips.

One of the big themes of the Geneva International Motor Show, which opens to the news media on Tuesday and to the public on Thursday through March 14, is that electric-powered vehicles are moving inexorably from prototypes to actual production — whether or not the buying public is ready.

“The time is past when companies only displayed studies,” said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Centre for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Duisburg, Germany. “Now the industry is moving toward hard facts.”

Governments around the world, eager to do something about global warming, have been pushing automakers in that direction.

But the shift toward electric vehicles also represents a huge leap of faith for the automakers, especially as they emerge from a devastating downturn. To be able to produce electric cars in a few years, they must invest billions now without knowing how large the market will be.

In addition, there is no consensus on what kind of technology will prevail. The possibilities include pure battery power, some combination of batteries and internal combustion engines and more exotic solutions like hydrogen fuel cells.

“Right now, car companies don’t quite know what technology to bet on,” said Peter Wells, co-director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University in Wales. “It’s probably not safe to bet on just one.”

Opel, which is trying to regain market share in Europe from Volkswagen and Ford, is scheduled to start commercial production of the Ampera — a cousin of the Chevrolet Volt — near the end of next year. BMW said last week that it would produce an electric vehicle made partly with lightweight carbon fibre at its existing plant in Leipzig, with market introduction no later than 2015.

Toyota, still struggling to repair a reputation battered by reports of sudden acceleration and other problems in its vehicles, is scheduled to show the latest prototype of its plug-in Prius hybrid in Geneva. The car will be able to travel 25 km solely on battery power and is expected to hit the market in 2011.

Some industry experts say all-electric vehicles present an opportunity to create a new market among well-heeled, environmentally conscious buyers.

“Interesting customer segments are waiting desperately in some cases for these products,” said Gregor Matthies, a partner at the consultant Bain & Co. in Munich.

In November, Daimler began producing small numbers of battery-powered versions of its two-seat Smart car in Hambach, France. The company has said it plans to produce 20,000 a year, beginning in 2012.

Mitsubishi’s MiEV, already in Japanese showrooms, is scheduled to be available in Europe later this year. Nissan plans to introduce its Leaf in the United States, Europe and Japan in December.

Even the makers of sports cars, bastions of internal combustion, are tentatively moving toward electric power. By Jack Ewing, New York Times News Service

Toyota Motor Corp. has had to recall more than 7 million other cars in the United States, Europe, and China over a sticky accelerator and floor mats that can get caught in the gas pedal. Those problems and criticism of Toyota’s response to them have sullied the stellar reputation for quality long held by one of Japan’s corporate icons.

Separately, the company has told dealers in the United States it is preparing to repair the brakes on thousands of Prius vehicles there, according to an e-mail sent by a company executive. It was unclear whether Toyota planned a formal US recall.

“We will make an announcement soon on the action we plan to take,’’ spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi said, commenting on media reports yesterday that the company had decided to issue a Japan recall. Takeuchi did not confirm those reports.

The Prius is the world’s top-selling gas-electric hybrid, and its fuel efficiency has drawn intense interest amid concerns about global warming and dependence on fossil fuels.

Toyota decided Saturday on a recall in Japan covering its latest Prius model and has notified domestic dealers, according to Japan’s largest newspaper, the Yomiuri, which did not name sources. It said Toyota would announce the move early in the coming week after consulting with the Japanese government. Japan’s Kyodo News agency and TV Asahi carried similar reports. Kyodo said Toyota has started notifying dealers, and that at least 170,000 vehicles in Japan would be subject to recall.

Phone calls to the section at Japan’s transport ministry dealing with recalls went unanswered yesterday. None of about 10 Toyota dealers in Tokyo and the western Japanese city of Osaka had received any notification. Three dealers in the United States said the same thing on yesterday.

Prius drivers in Japan and the United States have complained of a short delay before the antilock brakes kick in – a flaw Toyota says can be fixed with a software programming change. The brakes will work if the driver keeps pushing the pedal.

The brake problem affects about 270,000 Priuses that were sold in the United States and Japan starting in May. The company says it has fixed vehicles that went on sale since last month.

Bob Carter, a Toyota group vice president, sent an e-mail message Friday night to US dealers, saying the automaker is working on a Prius repair plan and will disclose details early this week. At least 100 US drivers of Prius cars have complained to the government that their brakes seemed to fail momentarily when they were driving on bumpy roads. The government says the problem is suspected in four crashes and two minor injuries.

Public awareness of the problem “has prompted considerable customer concern, speculation, and media attention due to the significance of the Prius image,’’ Carter said in the e-mail. “We want to assure our dealers that we are moving rapidly to provide a solution for your existing customers.’’

Toyota yesterday began airing spots on US television that say the company is “working around the clock’’ to build the highest-quality vehicles and to restore faith in its vehicles.

“In recent days, our company hasn’t been living up to the standards that you’ve come to expect from us,’’ an unidentified announcer said in a voiceover.

Carter wrote that the ads tell viewers about Toyota’s 50-plus years of building safe, reliable vehicles in the United States.

Toyota’s response to the safety issues has drawn the attention of US politicians.

Toyota Motor North America’s chairman, Yoshi Inaba, will appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday.

A key committee member has asked that transportation officials who served under President George W. Bush also appear. By Kelly Olsen, The Boston Globe

As a matter of fact, bmw x3 provides more space and utility for users to aid in their day-to-day adventures. It comes standard with a 3.0 liter in-line six cylinder engine rated at 215hp and 185 lb-ft of torque. Although you won’t probably notice the lower horsepower during the winter months, but you will in the warm half of the year on dry roads. Another thing is the enlarge backseat makes it a more compelling family vehicle, with plenty of legroom and a reclining seatback that make road trips friendlier for those riding in the back. And so this summer, let the drive itself be great family fun for everyone.