DETROIT – Another day and still no money from the White House. But all the major wire services report it will likely happen Wednesday. The AP quotes Michigan Senator Carl Levin as saying GM will get $8 billion, Chrysler will get $7, and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will be the car czar.
The AP reports Chrysler pays out $7 billion to suppliers every 45 days.
Big changes in the big truck market. Volkswagen now owns nearly 30 percent of German truck maker MAN and nearly 70 percent of Swedish truck company Scania. VW is pushing for a three-way alliance between the companies, the Wall Street Journal reports. And MAN is buying up all of VW?s truck operations in Brazil.
Daimler announced that it will partner with Evonik Industries to produce lithium-ion batteries to power Mercedes and smart electric vehicles. Daimler will acquire just less than 50 percent of a company owned by Evonik. This cooperation will help Daimler reach its goal to start mass producing electric vehicles by 2010.
WardsAuto.com reports French President Nicolas Sarkozy is promising to help car makers finance their sales, but only if they stop moving production and parts sourcing outside of France. And in other global auto aid news, China is considering cutting the purchase tax for a car. The proposal is to tax cars based on engine size, cars with smaller engines would have lower taxes.
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