Washington - Sales of automobiles in the US plummeted in September as a weaker economy and tighter access to credit kept buyers away, industry figures showed Wednesday.

Both domestic and foreign automakers saw double digit declines. General Motors sales took the smallest hit falling 16 per cent from the year-earlier period, while Ford Motor Corp was pummelled by a 35 per cent drop and Chrysler slid 33 per cent.

Asian automakers also saw sales fall about a third, with a 32 per cent drop at Toyota Motor Corp, a 24 per cent decline at Honda and a 37 per cent slide at Nissan Motor Co.

Paris - Toyota, currently the world's largest automaker, plans to boost its sales by 200,000 to 9.7 million vehicles in 2009, Toyota's vice president Mitsuo Kinoshita said Wednesday in Paris.

The growth in the so-called BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - will also include North America and western Europe, Kinoshita said.

Toyota's new innovations with the super compact iQ and new hybrid models are expected to carry much of the growth especially in Europe, where the rest of the market is bracing for a 10 per cent sales slump.

Toyota expects its hybrid Prius sales in Europe to increase from 43,000 to 60,000 or 70,000 in 2009.

Stuttgart  - German luxury automaker Porsche, which holds a controlling interest in Volkswagen, reported Wednesday lower-than- hoped sales for its own Porsche cars, sending shares in the group sharply lower.

Porsche preferred shares slid 8.6 per cent on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange to 69.27 euros (97.67 billion dollars).

A company spokesman in Stuttgart suggested Porsche would limit output.

Brussels  - Environmental groups on Wednesday reacted with outrage to a French proposal weakening planned European Union laws on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) cars should be allowed to emit.

The French government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, "is giving up any pretence of trying to limit the climate impact of cars," pressure group Greenpeace said in a statement.

The proposal, presented to diplomats on Tuesday, "totally ignores" a vote in the European Parliament and shows that France is "totally out of touch with the needs of citizens who are desperate to reduce their fuel bills," a spokesman for Brussels-based group Transport and Environment (T&E) told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Ashok Leyland, India’s commercial vehicle Industry has made announcement that the company has inked a joint venture (JV) pact with John Deere, for manufacturing and marketing of construction equipment. 

John Deere is world`s largest maker of equipment for agriculture and forestry and a major equipment dealer for construction and lawn and turf care.

The JV aims to start production by early 2010 and will first launch Backhoes and Four-wheel-drive Loaders. 

Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), a wholly-owned arm of South Korea-based Hyundai Motor Company, has rolled out a new variant of its flagship brand Santro in the Indian market. 

The new LPG version named Santro Eco is equipped with 1.1 litre eRLX engine, which will provide its customers, a unique combination of reliable performance and excellent fuel efficiency both in the city and on highways.

The company claims that the new LPG model with 27.2 litre tank will cost Rs 21,500 higher than the existing petrol model with 35 litre tank.