Vienna  - The car industry in Central and Eastern Europe is expected to recover soon from the current crisis and to suffer less than producers in Western Europe, according to a study released in Vienna on Monday.

While industry and logistics experts at the Fraunhofer Austria Research institute said in their study that production would stagnate in Western Europe and the United States until 2012, the CEE region would see growth rates of 30 per cent.

Hinduja group owned Commercial vehicles manufacturer, Ashok Leyland has announced various measures to tackle situation caused under the impact of global slowdown, including reshaping of its investment plans from Rs 3,200-3,300 crore to Rs 2,000 crore, cost cutting measures, salary cut and retrenchment in some segments.

Korean car maker, Hyundai Motors, has announced hike in prices of its models up to Rs 14,636, in a bid to mitigate the impact of increase in input costs. Country's second largest car maker after Maruti Suzuki maintains that price hike is a timely step to cover losses due to rising input costs.

The decision makes Santro, i10 and Accent models dearer in the range of Rs 3,601 to Rs 14,636. However, prices of i20 and Santro are not revised and both would come under introductory price scheme.

South Korean automaker Hyundai has increased the prices of its popular hatchbacks Santro, i10 and sedan Accent across all variants by up to Rs 14,636 with immediate effect to offset rise in input cost.

A company official said, "The price hike is primarily due to rise in input cost. The price hike ranges from 1.2% to 3%." It may be noted that recently, Maruti Suzuki, Honda Siel, Toyota Kirloskar and Ford Motor India had also decided to raise prices due to similar reasons. After the latest revision, the company's flagship hatchback Santro will be costlier by Rs 3,601 to Rs 5,163 while, its premium compact car i10 will now be dearer by Rs 3,974 to Rs 7,637.

Last month federal government announced, in its budget, the formation of the Canadian Secured Credit Facility under which Ottawa will purchase up to $12 billion in securities from financial institutions including banks.

The securities would be supported by loans and leases on vehicles and equipment. This would enable the automakers to offer financing to more consumers and dealers.

This news comes as the much needed relief to the automobile industry scorched by recession. But they seem to be getting much too impatient to wait till June.

Paris - French car maker Renault saw its profits plunge in 2008 after posting a huge loss in the second half of the year, the company said on Thursday.

Profits for last year totaled 571 million euros (735 million dollars), down 78.6 per cent from 2007, Renault said in a press statement.

The profit downturn was the result of a shrinking car market in the second half of 2008, when Renault posted a loss of 980 million euros.

Turnover for the year fell by 7 per cent, to 37.79 billion euros, as sales of Renault vehicles dropped by 4.1 per cent "in a world market that shrank by 5 per cent," the company said.