Leading automobile manufacturer, Hindustan Motors Ltd would launch a high-premium sports utility vehicle in the Indian market. Explaining the plans of the company, Vice-President, Y V S Vijay Kumar said that the company intends to launch SUV in the end of current financial year. 

Mr. Kumar was here in Chennai to attend tie up function with Pune-based Opulent Auto Care. The price of SUV 'Outlander' would be around Rs 30 lakh. He expressed satisfaction on the sale of 'Montero'. The company has sold about 600 units of vehicles so far.

Berlin - Germany hardened its stance Friday in a dispute with the European Union and Porsche about state influence over Europe's biggest carmaker, Volkswagen.

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said Germany would keep legislation that grants the state of Lower Saxony veto powers at VW, despite this week's proclamation by Porsche that it has an effective majority of VW.

"There is no reason completely to abolish the Volkwagen Law. The EU Commission should accept that," Zypries told members of the Bundesrat upper chamber in Berlin, referring to a threat by the European Commission to fine Germany.

Though Tata Motors authorities are eagerly awaiting to resume work on the project Nano, they still feel that the situation in Singur has not completely calmed down and it may be risky for them to return.. The information was disclosed by the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

On Wednesday during a press conference, he announced, “They are closely observing the situation and when they feel the situation is normal they will come back.”

On Tuesday, the CM, talks with its chairman Ratan Tata regarding the issue.

Frankfurt  - Stock in Volkswagen AG shot 27 per cent higher Thursday as a mystery buyer scooped up shares in Europe's biggest carmaker, which is at the centre of a battle for control.

The stock ended electronic trading in Frankfurt at 304.00 euros.

Luxury car maker Porsche declared this week that Volkswagen had effectively become its subsidiary. Porsche controls 35 per cent of VW. But the German state of Lower Saxony contends its 20-per-cent stake gives it veto rights to obstruct Porsche.

Dusseldorf  - Sales of Japanese-brand cars have slumped nearly 7 per cent this year, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) said on Thursday from its German office in Dusseldorf.

The manufacturers have been hit by both consumer worries and a decline in market share that reduced JAMA companies' stake to 10.9 per cent.

Sales in the eight months from January to August were just under 229,500, down 6.7 per cent from the corresponding months of 2007.

Amsterdam - Dutch nationals buying new cars are increasingly choosing diesel models, according to a report by the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released on Wednesday.

The CBS said that in 2007, an unprecedented 30 per cent of new private cars were diesel cars.

Seventeen per cent of all Dutch cars run on diesel. This is below the European average of 50 per cent.

In the first six months of 2008, diesel sales in the Netherlands increased by 3.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2007.

By contrast, petrol sales decreased by 0.5 per cent.