Top car maker Hyundai Motor India is all set to develop its proposed small car with an 800 cc engine for the Indian market.

Hyundai's 800cc car would be rolled out in the next three to four years, a company official said.

Hyundai’s plan is to launch this model directly against Maruti Suzuki’s popular Maruti 800 model, with an ambition to come out as India’s biggest car manufacturer.

General Motors (GM) has decided to invest $200 million (about Rs 870 crore) for engine, gearbox and transmission project. The engine project would be set up in Talegaon near Pune, Maharashtra.

The company has recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government of Maharashtra. GM is the largest manufacturer of automobiles in the world with strong presence in almost all developed countries.

The proposed power train project would have an annual production capacity of 160,000 units and it would be completed by 2010.

New Delhi - Work at the Tata Motors factory in eastern India that is producing the world's cheapest car, the Nano, came to a standstill on Friday after the company's employees were threatened by demonstrators demanding return of farmland acquired for the project.

Thousands of farmers and political activists have laid a siege around the factory in Singur near West Bengal's state capital Kolkata since Sunday.

Tokyo - Japan's leading carmaker Toyota Motor Corp expects sales in 2009 to drop, owing to weak demand from North America, the company said Thursday.

Toyota lowered its global sales prognosis from 10.4 million units to 9.7 million units for next year, delaying the company's goal to become the world's first carmaker to sell more than 10 million units per year.

Lumax Industries,

Tokyo - Toyota Motor Corp, Japan's leading carmaker, expects to sell fewer cars in 2009, owing to weak demand from North America, a Japanese news agency said Wednesday.

Toyota on Thursday was to lower its global sales prognosis from 10.4 million units to 9.7 million units for next year, Jiji Press reported, citing informed sources.