FORD TAKES A GREEN TURN:Ford Motor has promoted an executive to a top-level environmental remit in another reflection of green issues' elevation to the top of the US car industry's agenda.
Susan Cischke will be responsible for establishing a "long-range sustainability strategy" and environmental and safety policy for the company, reporting to Alan Mulally, Ford's president and chief executive.
Ms Cischke formerly reported to Ford's head of corporate affairs as head of Ford's environmental and safety engineering.
US MORTGAGE CRISIS HITS CAR SALES:The crisis in the US mortgage market has hurt US car sales this month, General Motors vice-chairman Bob Lutz has claimed. Lutz said he did not know how GM's own sales had performed in April to date, but said he expected the whole sector would feel the impact of the stress on the housing finance market.
GM, which has lost more than €8.8 billion in the past two years, has been struggling with high labour costs, stiff competition from Japanese carmakers and slumping sales of profitable trucks and sport utility vehicles.
The world's largest carmaker is in the middle of a sweeping restructuring that includes slashing more than 34,000 jobs and closing 12 plants.
VW's TRIUMPHANT AGM:Volkswagen's annual meeting, often a hotbed for shareholder criticism, turned into a triumph for the German carmaker's chief executive and controversial chairman last week as they cemented their control over the company.
The main negative topic was the corporate governance at VW, with special criticism for Ferdinand Piëch, supervisory board chairman, over his decision to oust his successor as chief executive.
But that was tempered by praise for the new chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, the recent sharp rise in the share price and their arrival as largest shareholder of Porsche - where Mr Piëch is a controlling shareholder. Porsche has launched a low-ball €35 billion takeover offer for VW.
The meeting came on the back of strong first-quarter results, net profit more than doubled to €740 million on the back of a far-reaching restructuring programme by Bernd Pischetsrieder, VW's former boss.