South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. reported a decline in profit for a fifth consecutive quarter.
The profits declined in China and United States due to the cost of promotions that were done to strengthen car sales and unfavorable foreign exchange trends.

Net income fell 1% to 1.91 trillion won ($1.76 billion) in the quarter that ended in March. It has beaten the 1.71 trillion won average of 23 analyst estimates that were compiled by Bloomberg.

The Seoul-based company's operating profit declined 18% to 1.59 trillion won, missing the 1.71 trillion won average of analyst estimates.

Foreign automakers are investing more money into factories in China irrespective of fact that the biggest economic slowdown affected sales growth adversely. It seems that Volkswagen AG and General Motors will not cut their planned investments, whereas Toyota Motor and Ford Motor Co. are also working in this direction.

This is being done by the companies instead of the economic slowdown, which affected the car market in January-March. During that time sales increased only 3.9%, compared to 9.2% a year ago and below the 7% growth estimated by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) for this year.

According to a federal judge ruling, a 2009 bankruptcy order protects General Motors (GM) from billions of dollars in death and injury claims over defective ignition switches in older small cars.

Judge Robert Gerber ruled that plaintiffs who claim a loss in the value of their cars can still take legal action against General Motors Co. Back in 2009, Gerber enabled new GM to come out from bankruptcy protection free from liabilities of the company before bankruptcy. Recently, the plaintiffs said that GM misled the court six years ago as it knew about but unsuccessful to disclose the ignition switch problem.

Erik Buell Racing (EBR), an American motorcycle sport company which manufactures street and racing motorcycles, has closed operations. Two-wheeler giant Hero Motocorp Ltd holds a 49% stake in the company. EBR has also filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors.

Back in 2013, Hero MotoCorp, an Indian motorcycle giant, purchased stake in the company for $30 million. One of the products, New Delhi-based Hero developed in partnership with EBR is a sports bike HX. This product is scheduled to be launched in the second half of this fiscal year.

A Hero spokesperson said, “The Company is confident that its future product line-up would not be affected despite EBR ceasing operations”.

An announcement has been made that Canada will sell its remaining stake in General Motors Co. Canada will sell its stake to Goldman Sachs for an undisclosed amount.

As per market experts, it is a deal that helps bolster the Conservative government's promise to balance the books before elections. According to Canada GEN Investment Corp., a federal agency, this transaction includes the sale of 73.4 million shares. It has revealed that as a result the Canadian government will no longer hold any shares of General Motors once the deal closes Friday.

On Friday, electric carmaker Tesla Motors announced that it sold 10,030 cars in the first three months of 2015.

Shares of Tesla surged more than 8% after the company reported strong vehicle sales. The company announced that in the first quarter of the year, vehicle deliveries rose 55%, setting a new record. With this number, the Silicon Valley electric-car maker has attained the pace to far exceed the 31,655 Model S sedans sold in 2014.

Tesla said it would publish the number of new car deliveries within three days of quarter end. Company's Chief Executive Elon Musk has set a target of 55,000 deliveries in 2015, and 500,000 by 2020. If those ambitious sales are met, these benchmarks would transform Tesla's profile in the cutthroat car business.

Tesla motors offered quarterly sales soon after the end of the period as West Virginia bans the Palo Alto Company's direct-sales approach.

Tesla has so far avoided carrying business enterprise like standard automakers. The firm has decided to stay on the practice of supplying common sales figures.

The Palo Alto Corporation announced Friday that consumers received 10,030 automobiles in the initial 3 months of the year. The announcement surpasses the previous projection of 9,500 deliveries and establishing a new quarterly record.

It was the very first time when Tesla had straight away supplied sales figures soon after the end of the quarter. The company in a recent release stated that it would continue to provide the data within three days of the finish of each 3-month period.

In a bid to increase sales, Volvo Cars has decided to open an assembly plant in the US, said The Associated Press. For the North American plant, Volvo Cars would be required to shell out an estimated $500 million. The plant will help strengthen Volvo in a new push by the automaker in the US market.

Reports have revealed that the automaker has considered various locations for the construction of the assembly plant, but has not disclosed the short list of locations as of now. The company is expected to make the announcement in next few months.

Elon Musk, chief product architect of Tesla Motors tweeted that the company would introduce a major new product line next month. Musk tweeted that the new product line will be revealed at Hawthorne Design Studio on Thursday 8pm, April 30. Shares in the electric car company jumped 3% to $190.97 on the news.

Some reports mentioned that the product might be a home battery based on a technology used in the Tesla vehicles. Musk has spoken about it during a February earnings call.

At that time, he said, "We're going to unveil some of the Tesla home battery or consumer battery that will be for use in people's houses or businesses, fairly soon. We have the design done, and it should start going into production probably in about six months or so".

On Monday, Swedish carmaker Volvo said that it would make an investment of $500m in order to construct a new factory in the US. This step has been taken by the company as it is looking forward to sell more 100,000 cars a year in the US, which is world's second largest auto market.

The target of selling 100,000 cars a year focuses on approximately 80% growth from current sales levels. It is expected that this year, the US market will reach 16.9m units. There has been growth in sales of General Motors, Chrysler and Ford.

Dennis Williams, leader of the United Auto Workers union, was present at the union's national bargaining convention in Detroit on Wednesday.

He has rejected a tier of lower wages for workers making auto parts. Williams affirmed that the union already has too many tiers of low wages. He was responding to the reports revealing that General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co may propose a third tier of pay.

Williams is facing pressure from union members to send a second tier of wages. He affirmed that he has come across talks about the third tier in which employees would be paid less than the $15.28 starting salary for second-tier workers.

Detroit headquartered General Motors Company announced on Friday that it has built a new Teen Driver system that automatically mutes the radio when passenger sitting on the front seat is not buckled up. The new system also gives a report card to parents about their teens' trip. According to the company, the new system will be in on its redesigned 2016 Chevrolet Malibu.

While giving information about the new system, the company said that the Teen Driver system also gives audible and visual warning to the driver if vehicle travels over pre-set speeds by parents. Volume of the radio could also be set to a lower level that cannot be exceeded, as per the company.

Mercedes wants to offer people an experience wherein they can imagine sitting comfortably in a luxurious automobile, with ample space, having face to face conversation with leg room to spare, checking email or completing up that work project, while the car they are taking to meeting is cruising along with no driver at the wheels.

This is the experience that Mercedes wants to offer with its F 015 Luxury in Motion, a computer-driven autonomous vehicle. According to experts, driving will no longer be needed in car transportation. It is going to be the place to socialize, relax, work and do anything and everything, excluding to pay attention to the road and other drivers, safety lights and speed zones.

Electric vehicle market Tesla Motors said it is updating its Model S electric car with an aim to help ease drivers' concerns about running out of battery charge.

Tesla also hinted that in near future, drivers can take their hands off the wheel altogether. Latest update of Tesla will plan the best route to a destination driver's based on the location of charging stations. Tesla said that it will guide the car to available spots to charge.

The car will give warning to drivers if battery power is low before they drive beyond an area where they can charge. Tesla first achieved widespread attention following their production of the Tesla Roadster, which is the first fully electric sports car. Tesla’s second vehicle is the Model S, which is a completely electric luxury sedan.

Honda is recalling about 105,000 vehicles because of defect in driver's side air bag inflators, which can explode under too much pressure. Takata-made airbags can explode and could throw metal pieces at passengers. The company recalled some 2008 Pilot, 2004 Civic and 2001 Accord vehicles.

According to the company, all of the vehicles were identified on March 5 and the company selected the vehicles using a process, in which it matched Takata airbag inflater part numbers to individual vehicle identification numbers, or VINs.

It was discovered by Honda that over 88,000 Pilot vehicles should have been included in last year's recall related to Takata.

Ford Motor Company was on top in the Ethisphere Institute's list of World’s Most Ethical Companies of 2015 for the sixth consecutive year. Each year, the Ethisphere Institute recognizes companies, which take care of their products and services they provide to their consumers in addition to prioritizing their businesses.

Companies are selected by the Institute on the basis of five characteristics i.e. corporate citizenship and responsibility; ethics and compliance; culture of ethics, governance and leadership; innovation; and reputation.

Automotive giant General Motors will purchase $5 billion shares stock and will be returning cash worth $20 billion to shareholders over the next few years. GM took this step in order to resolve dispute with investors and it also approved a plan in an attempt to boost its share price that has remained unchanged for some time.

The decision was taken after discussions took place between the company and an investment group, which is led by Harry J. Wilson. The group is a part of the government task force, which managed the company's $49 billion bailout few years back.

The electric-car maker Tesla Motors will cut jobs in China due to disappointing sales in the country. The company led by entrepreneur Elon Musk has gone through a trademark dispute, and it is still battling to convince Chinese customers to buy electric cars made by the company.

As per a China-based newspaper, the automaker will reduce staff count by about 30%. While confirming the job cuts, Gary Tao, spokesman of the company, said that the company has been reducing staff since early this year. The layoff is a part of a larger restructuring plan. Much of the plan has already been implemented and the current team of the company is ‘strong and steady’, Tao added.

’s Tesla Motors has listed 78 job openings in its new stationary-storage unit. The new unit of the company will make battery packs and will also help the company to expand his range beyond the electric vehicles for providing energy to homes, businesses and utilities.

The job openings can be seen on the company’s website. These openings are for the storage team, including several engineers, chief counsel, a regulatory and policy advocate and an installation project manager.

After having a close look at Tesla’s filings and presentations, it is clear that the growth trajectory has been quite progressive and bright in the segment.

It is comparatively easier and quick to make batteries for the stationary storage devices rather than making cars, as they are more long-term investment.

Japanese automotive giant Toyota Motor Corporation has offered promotion to more foreigners to senior posts. Europe chief Didier Leroy has been appointed executive vice president by the world's biggest automaker.

Leroy will be one of six executive vice presidents (EVP) at Toyota. Julie Hamp, a senior official at Toyota Motor North America will be made a managing officer and will also become first female executive.

An African-American general counsel in North America, Christopher Reynolds is also going to hold the post of a managing officer. Promotion of Hamp marks a step in Japanese automaker's move to reduce the gender gap in the workplace. Corporate Japan has been asked to appoint women to 30% of top jobs by 2020.