While America Slept. Monday, February 23rd, 2009

An overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. WAS is being filed from Beijing until further notice.

Interest in Saab: Jan-Åke Jonsson, managing director of Saab Automobile AB, said other carmakers were among the investors that had shown interest in the unit, Reuters reports. The Swedish carmaker, granted protection from creditors last week, has said it must quickly restructure to deal with losses, seen at 3 billion Swedish crowns ($347 million) this year, and find new funding from either private or public sources in order to launch new and more competitive models. Germany’s Autohaus reports that Sweden’s government again denied any financial help to Saab.

Opel will hand in homework: GM Europe and Opel finally got their acts together: they will present their long-awaited business plan to the German government in the coming days, Reuters says. The German government distanced itself on Monday from any commitment to Opel’s future.

Cash4clunkers works: Germany’s cash4clunker program (€2.5K if you retire old and buy new) will result in 400K additional sales, says the industry group Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA) [via Das Autohaus]. That would be an increase of 13 percent. German car makers take about half of the additional sales, says the VDA.

Quick denial: This morning, China Business News reported that Chinese car maker Beijing Auto had initial talks with Chrysler to buy assets and technology while seeking to expand globally through acquisitions and to build its own brand model based on a global brand. “Not so,” said the purported purchaser, according to Gasgoo. Beijing Auto, is the Chinese partner of Hyundai Motor and Daimler AG. Chrysler LLC quit a joint venture between Beijing Auto and Daimler AG in late 2008, a year after Daimler sold its control to Cerberus (a.k.a. the smartest guys in the Kremlin). Chrysler’s 300C sedan is still made at the Beijing venture.

Toyota reduces output by 20 percent: Toyota plans to produce 6.5 million vehicles this year, down 20 percent from 8.21 million in 2008, the Nikkei [sub] says. Depending on how the industry fares, Toyota may be forced to slash output even further. Its February-April output will be only half the year-earlier level. The firm aims to wrap up its inventory adjustments in May, with production to rise month-to-month but still remain 40 percent below year-earlier levels. Toyota sees production picking up in or after the summer following the release of new models, including the redesigned Prius hybrid.

New Honda CEO: Honda appointed Takanobu Ito as new president and chief executive to replace Takeo Fukui, the Nikkei [sub] reports. Fukui, 64, has served in the top position since June 2003. Ito, 55, has been recently been engaged in production and research-and-development operations at home and overseas. Honda follows Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Co. in handing over management responsibilities to new top executives.