J.D. Power and Associates cut its forecast for light-vehicle sales in the U.S. on Wednesday, citing the weak economy.

General Motors Corp <GM.N> trailed Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> in global vehicle sales decisively through the second quarter and first half of the year, hurt by a large decline in North America.

By Poornima Gupta

After the wikipedia, the wikicar. "eCars - Now!" is a Finnish Internet community seeking to apply the collective approach taken by online collaborators like the authors of Wikipedia to start converting used petrol-fuelled cars to electric ones, with the first roll-out due this year.

A Deutsche Bank analyst on Wednesday cut his ratings for a trio of auto suppliers, citing reduced U.S. automotive production expectations for this year and next.

General Motors trailed Japanese rival Toyota Motor in global vehicle sales decisively through the second quarter and first half of the year, hurt by a large decline in North America.

Toyota sold more than 4.8 million vehicles worldwide in the first half, up 2 percent from the same period a year earlier, the Japanese automaker said Wednesday.

Which draws more juice from the electric grid, a big-screen plasma television or recharging a plug-in hybrid car?

Toyota Motor may cut its 2008 global vehicle sales target by as much as 350,000 units to about 9.5 million because of declining sales in the United States, Japan and Europe, according to news reports. 

The Canadian Auto Workers union will elect a new national president on Sept. 6 to replace Buzz Hargrove, who is retiring.

Ford Motor Co. plans to revamp some U.S. plants and bring six small vehicles to the U.S. market from overseas to meet customers' growing demand for more fuel-efficient options, a person briefed on the company's plans said Tuesday.

The continued decline in North American automotive production is expected to weigh heavily on the second-quarter results of auto suppliers, especially those heavily dependent on light truck production at the U.S.-based automakers.

Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP said Tuesday it is replacing the chief executive at subsidiary Residential Capital LLC, the mortgage lending unit of GMAC Financial Services LLC.

General Motors Corp. has joined with more than 30 utility companies across the U.S. to help work out electricity issues that will crop up when it rolls out new electric vehicles in a little more than two years.

Ford Motor Co <F.N> will extend buyout offers to hourly workers at more than a dozen plants in Michigan and Ohio next week as it looks to trim its workforce to match a declining U.S. market share.