Aiming to emphasize its presence in the Indian luxury car market, Hyundai India, on Thursday, unveiled the advanced versions of its luxury Sedan Sonata. The new premium Sonata sedans are priced between Rs 13.9 lakh and Rs 15.9 lakh.

According to the Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the launch of its premium sedans will help to pep up the sales. The company expects to sell 1000 unit of the new sedans in the first year.

Tokyo - Fuji Heavy Industries said on Friday it expected to incur its first loss in 15 years due to the yen's advance and declining auto sales amid the slowdown of the global economy.

The automaker of the Subaru brand was to suffer a net loss of 19 billion yen (213.12 million dollars) for fiscal year 2008 that ends in March, compared to an earlier projection of 10 billion yen in profit.

Tokyo - Nissan Motor Co plans to shift production of its March subcompact car to Thailand as a way to reduce cost amid the business slowdown, a Japanese business daily said Friday.

Nissan would be the first Japanese automaker to transfer production of a top-selling car to overseas operations.

The Japanese automaker was expected to incur an operating loss for the 2008-09 fiscal year that ends March 31 due to the slowdown of global car sales and a stronger yen.

New York  - The beleaguered General Motors expects an even worse sales drop in 2009 than in 2008, chief executive Rick Wagoner told a conference Thursday in Detroit.

But Wagoner was optimistic that the company was on the right path to fulfilling the demands of the US government in conjunction with the 13.4-billion-dollar loan it received from the US government in the waning days of 2008.

GM cut its US sales estimate for 2009 to 10.5 million units, which would be the lowest in 27 years and a reflection of the deepening effect of the year-old US recession.

Tokyo - Nissan Motor Co was expected to incur an operating loss for the 2008-09 fiscal year that ends March 31 due to the slowdown of global car sales and a stronger yen, Japanese media reports said Thursday.

Nissan would log the first operating loss since Carlos Ghosn became the company's chief operating officer in 1999, when the company formed a business partnership with France's Renault SA.

The Japanese automaker lowered its projection for the year's operating profit from 550 billion yen (6.16 billion dollars) to 270 billion yen in October.

It has been learnt that an electric version of Daimler's popular Smart car's batteries would be made by Tesla Motors Inc.

The customers would be able to buy the new version of Daimler's two-person Smart by the end of this year. Tesla, based in San Carlos and was initiated by Elon Musk, makes and sells an electric sportscar called the Roadster. At one point of time, Tesla even eyed New Mexico as a site for building its manufacturing plant.