Shares in Volkswagen dropped - 4.8% making them the sharpest decliners among German large cap stocks - following a Financial Times Deutschland report which said the carmaker might launch a EUR4bn(US$5.68bn) capital increase, although many analysts and traders were sceptical.

Volkswagen said it sold 652,000 cars in China during the first half of 2009, up 22.7% year-on-year and more than it sold in Germany for the first time.

Global automotive supplier Visteon Corporation has launched a reconfigurable cluster platform on Jaguar Land Rover's new Range Rover.

LG Display in South Korea has agreed a deal to supply LED-lit LCD panels worth "several tens of millions of dollars" to Continental.

Inquiries about the US government's new 'cash for clunkers' scrappage scheme are flooding in, according to media reports, fueling hopes the programme will boost the country's desperately flagging new car market.

Mitsubishi Motors plans to raise about JPY75bn (US$790m) to invest in vehicle launches through syndicated loans from 29 banks arranged by affiliate Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

Fiat has beaten off General Motors Europe's Vauxhall to take over the supply of thousands of cars to BSM (formerly the British School of Motoring), the UK's most popular driving school.

AvtoVAZ has denied rumours that it is to make a huge number of its staff redundant. The stories of job cuts began circulating after a meeting today between AvtoVAZ, the regional authorities of where its production is based - Samara

Mitsubishi Motors reported the biggest half year global production fall of Japan's top five automakers - 55.8% down to 306,264 units.

The Schaeffler group has reached an agreement with employee representatives about its planned EUR250m (US$355.5m) cost cutting programme, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

Concerned at the performance of the loss-making unit acquired last year, Tata Motors has appointed two consultants to advise Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on cost cuts, set targets for breaking even and using cash flow effectively.

Toyota plans to launch a JPY1.5m hybrid compact in Japan late in 2011, according to the Asahi newspaper.

Three state legislators, prodded by union members, are working on measures to save the Toyota-GM NUMMI plant in California as workers were told the plant had work till October and a negotiation deadline was extended by several days.

Daimler's second quarter financial results due tomorrow (July 29) are expected to show signs of underlying improvement in spite of a big pre-tax loss of over EUR1.5bn and a large drop in revenue over last year.

Renault's first half financial results - due to be announced later this week (July 30) - are expected to show some improvement in trend, but the company continues to be dragged down by a poor European market showing this year.

Sberbank CEO German Gref has said the German government could this week decide on approving automaker Opel's acquisition by his bank and Magna as the latter was reported to have improved its offer.

The Dongfeng Motor Group joint venture with Nissan Motor plans to spend RMB5bn (US$732m) to expand a new passenger vehicle plant in the southern city of Guangzhou.

Toyota Motor group worldwide vehicle sales for the first half of 2009 fell 26% year on year to about 3,564,000 units, but it still beat General Motors to remain the largest automaker - the US rival shifted about 3,552,700 units

Ford will begin exploratory cost cut talks with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union in September.

Delphi's lenders have won an auction that will enable them to buy the bankrupt company's remaining assets and a bankruptcy judge will hold a hearing tomorrow (29 July) to make a final ruling on the sale.