#Economy

Even with high gas prices, Americans are choosing fuel effiecient compacts with conventional gas engines over pricier gas-electric hybrids. Sales have steadily increased with the Hyundai Elantra, Ford Focus and Chevrolet Cruze while hybrids are showing little activity.

The eagerly awaited Volkswagen GTI Edition 35 may not after all, be coming to North America. According to an insider at Volkswagen of America, the U.S division is not interested in the GTI Edition 35.

Nissan has officially announced, that sales of the updated 2012 Leaf will start in the fall of 2012. The 2012 Leaf will include the addition of a standard heater, heated outside mirrors, heated steering wheel, heated front and rear seats and a rear HVAC duct. A quick charge port has also been added as standard equipment on Leaf SL models.

Kia is planning to boost U.S production capacity by one fifth next year, because of high demand for new models. The Optima sedan is one of the Kia models meeting high demand, and the south Korean automaker is excited to take advantage of the world’s second-biggest auto market.

With the recent earthquakes and tsunamis devestating Japan, automakers in the country are announcing a series of plant closures. Toyota, Mazda, Honda and Nissan have all announced plans to close various factories through the middle of March, although the plants could remain shuttered beyond that timeframe.

Toyota Motor Corp stock decline over the past 12 months. Source www.BigCharts.com
According to Bloomberg news, Toyota will soon announce a possible dividend cut or profit loss. Following the announcement by Toyota Motor Corp. President Katsuaki Watanabe, stocks dropped (just 0.2 percent) but still remained strong.
Bloomberg sources the Nikkei English News, which doesn’t give a source, but states that Toyota may actually post an operating loss of $1.7 Billion. It would be the first loss in the company’s 71 year history.
Toyota’s US sales fell 34 percent last month.

The news also brought about some market turbulence in German where both Daimler and BMW posted three percent losses for the day.

Meanwhile, Lamborghini has announced that even the ultra-rich are not free from the economic woes. While they do expect to post another record sales year, production will be slowed as the company will add an additional eight days to its Christmas brake.

Exotic car manufacturers, it should be noted, are in a unique position during such dire financial times as they rely on a pre-ordering process with lengthy wait times for customers. This means that sales of 2009 vehicles more accurately represent the 2007 marketplace as orders would have to have been placed much earlier. The advantage for companies like Lamborghini or Ferrari is that this system gives them a significant amount of time to react to an economic downturn.

[Source Bloomberg & Bloomberg]

Official Toyota Sales figures after the jump: