Commercial truckmakers sold 227,700 medium- and heavy-duty trucks in the U.S. last year, down 30% in 2008, according to Automotive News. It says demand for Class 8 trucks plunged by two-thirds to 98,700 units.

The truck tally brings total U.S. sales of cars and light, medium- and heavy-duty trucks in 2009 to 10.66 million units. By comparison, automakers sold a record 13.64 million passenger and commercial vehicles in China last year.

North American commercial truck demand began tumbling three years ago in the wake of a 2006 sales boom when fleets stocked up before tougher diesel emission rules took effect in the U.S. and Canada on Jan. 1, 2007. By 2008, the recession was curtailing freight volume, thus cooling sales of the largest trucks. The housing slump has slashed sales of medium- and heavy-duty pickup trucks.

AN says Navistar, whose sales fell 22% last year to 52,800 units, was the top-selling truckmaker in the U.S., outselling 2008 leader Ford (-23%) by a mere 27 units. Freightliner remained third with volume of 44,100 units, down 27%.

The bright spot for the industry is that truck sales dropped only 6% in December from a year earlier, the smallest decline in two years. North American orders for Class 8 trucks surged 37% year over year in December to 11,900 vehicles, according to Americas Commercial Transportation Research Co. LLC. The Columbus, Ind.-based research firm says orders from Mexico and other export markets were the highest since early 2008.

Crude oil futures dropped $1.40 per barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange to settle at $77.62, down $5.56, or 7%, from their 15-month high two weeks ago.

Analysts attribute yesterday’s slide to the stronger dollar, which reduces dollar-denominated oil prices, and the Chinese government’s move to curb bank lending, which could slow that country’s growth with a spillover effect on the global economy. The rally in oil futures early this year was fueled by a weaker dollar, expectations of an economic expansion that would boost energy consumption and a cold snap that hiked demand for heating oil.

U.S. retail gasoline prices have leveled off after jumping 13 cents per gallon in the first 13 days of this year. The average pump price nationwide is now $2.74 per gallon, down 2 cents from a week ago, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Prices now are 89 cents higher than a year ago.

Dutch sports car maker Spyker Cars NV, which is engaged in a last-ditch bid for General Motors Co.’s Saab Automobile unit, raised about $705,000 by selling stock to an unidentified U.S. financier, Bloomberg News reports.

The news service says Spyker confirmed the sale after its filing with Dutch securities regulator AFM earlier this week showed the company had an additional 230,000 outstanding shares compared with its previous filing in October.

GM has said none of the bids it has received for Saab has firm financing. Bloomberg previously reported that Spyker is the sole remaining contender with a bid of $75 million in cash and $325 million in preferred stock in the new company. The news service adds that as a condition of sale, GM would insist on the departure of the Dutch company’s chairman and largest shareholder, Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov.

Toyota Tsusho Corp., Toyota Motor Corp.’s trading company affiliate, has agreed to form a joint venture with Australian mining company Orocobre Ltd. to develop a lithium mine in Salar de Olaroz in northwestern Argentina.

The project is expected to give Toyota access to a long-term, reliable, low-cost supply of lithium to be used to make lithium-ion batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles. The automaker, which owns 22% of Toyota Tsusho, plans to introduce a plug-in version of its Prius hybrid sedan and an all-electric car by about 2012—both equipped with lithium-ion batteries. Toyota also has a partnership with Panasonic Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. to develop and produce lithium-ion battery packs.

Toyota Tsusho will own a 25% stake in the mining venture, which is expected to cost as much as $120 million. Orocobre will hold the balance and operate the venture. A low-cost loan from the Japanese government will fund 60% of development costs.

The companies expect to open the mine by 2012 with annual capacity to extract 15,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate, or enough for 3 million vehicle batteries. The partners say the project would be the world’s fifth-largest producer of lithium carbonate for batteries.

Most hybrid vehicles currently use nickel metal hydride batteries. But many automakers are switching to lithium-ion cells, which are lighter and can store more energy, thus enabling electric-only vehicles to travel farther on a charge.

Toyota Tsusho, which also supplies electronics makers Panasonic and Sanyo Electric Co., tells The Wall Street Journal that it expects lithium supplies could become tight within 10 years. The newspaper cites a study by research firm Fuji-Keizai that predicts the global market for automotive lithium-ion batteries will grow to $24.7 billion by 2014 from $274 million last year. Analysts have voiced concerns about the political instability of Bolivia, which has about half of the world’s known lithium reserves.

Builders broke ground on new homes in the U.S. last month at an annual rate of 557,000 units, down 4% from November, as cold weather impeded construction, says the Dept. of Commerce.

But issuance of building permits—considered a gauge of future home construction—unexpectedly surged 10.9% to an annual rate of 653,000 units, the highest level since October 2008. Economists say the report could foreshadow an increase in homebuilding in the first quarter of this year.

Economists consider the housing market a key factor for a U.S. economic rebound. Automakers are awaiting an increase in construction that they say would boost sales of fullsize pickup trucks, which are favored by contractors.

The U.S. Producer Price Index, which jumped 1.8% from October to November, increased 0.2% in December as food prices soared 1.4%, according to the Dept. of Labor. For the full year, producer prices increased 4.4%.

The core index, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, was unchanged month over month in December and up just 0.9% for the year. Economists say the data show that the economy is recovering without reigniting inflation. The Federal Reserve aims to hold inflation in a target range of 1.5%-2%.

Honda Motor Co. says its 50:50 joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Group Co. plans to erect its second assembly plant in China to meet increasing demand. It will be Honda’s fifth auto assembly plant in China.

The $168 million plant will be located near Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co.’s existing plant in Wuhan in central China. The factory is slated to begin production in the second half of 2012 with initial capacity of 60,000 Honda Civic compact cars and CR-V compact crossover vehicles per year. Capacity could eventually increase to 240,000 units, and Honda might make the gasoline-electric hybrid version of the Civic there.

Dongfeng Honda also plans to increase annual capacity at its existing plant this year by 40,000 units to 240,000. The factory builds the Honda Civic, CR-V and Accord-based Spirior midsize sedan.

Honda operates two other plants in China through a joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. The facilities, which have combined capacity of 360,000 units, make the Accord midsize car, Fit subcompact car and Odyssey minivan. Honda Automobile (China) produces 50,000 vehicles per year for export. Honda’s total annual capacity in China will reach 710,000 units when the Wuhan plant opens.

Honda Motor Co.’s joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Group Co. plans to introduce a small car under the new China-only Li Nian brand next year, says Bloomberg News.

Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo tells the news service the jointly developed car will have an engine smaller than 1.6 liters—a hot segment in China now—and will be Honda’s lowest-priced car in China. He says the Li Nian car will compete with Nissan’s inexpensive Livina small hatchback, which is priced below Honda’s City and Fit subcompact cars in China. The Livina is made in China in Nissan’s joint venture with Dongfeng.

Honda tells Bloomberg the Li Nian, which means “ideal” or “spirit,” is the first original brand created in China by a foreign-domestic joint venture. Analysts say selling the new car under a separate brand could allow Honda to compete in low-price segments without cheapening its own brand or tarnishing its reputation for quality.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation of Ford Motor Co.’s 2007 recall of more than 500,000 Escape crossover utility vehicles after reports that some vehicles experienced fires after they underwent recall repairs, says Bloomberg News.

The campaign, which involved gasoline-powered Escapes from the 2001-2004 model years, was to repair faulty connectors for the vehicle’s antilock brake system’s wiring harness. If the connectors corrode, they can short out and start a fire under the hood.

A NHTSA report says at least 86 of the 388,500 Escapes already repaired under the recall have subsequently had “non-crash fire incidents.” NHTSA says it appears that those vehicles were improperly inspected, not repaired correctly or not fixed at all. The company tells Bloomberg most of incidents involved smoking or melted connectors, not open flames.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based electric vehicle and battery systems maker Coda Automotive has hired Michael Jackson, a former senior General Motors Co. marketing executive, as senior vice president of global sales and distribution, starting on Jan 27.

Jackson, who headed GM’s North American marketing and advertising until 2007, previously held marketing jobs at Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Coors Brewing. He will oversee the sales launch of the Coda battery-powered sedan in California late this year.

Unlike other automakers, Coda plans to sell directly to consumers. Next year the company aims to sell as many as 20,000 of the $45,000 Chinese-built sedans, which boast a range of as much as 120 miles per charge.

Coda has raised at least $49 million to develop the car, which is to be built by Hafei Motor Co. with batteries supplied by China’s Tianjin Lishen Battery. Frederick, Colo.-based UQM Technologies will supply electric motors.

Investors include founder Miles Rubin, private investment firm Aeris Capital AG, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Thomas McLarty, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. Coda’s board of advisers includes Kenneth Baker, a veteran of GM’s EV1 project; John Wallace, a former director of Ford’s electric and alternative fuel vehicle program and co-founder of the California Fuel Cell Partnership; and Michael Wang, manager of electric vehicle assessment at Argonne Labs.

BMW AG’s Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. unit has appointed Torsten Mueller-Otvos, its BMW global products chief, to become its CEO on March 31. He will report to Rolls-Royce Chairman Ian Robertson, who also heads BMW Group’s global sales and marketing.

Mueller succeeds Tom Purves, who will retire after 25 years at BMW. Purves took the helm at Rolls-Royce in mid-2008 after nine years as CEO of BMW’s sales unit for the Americas. He began his auto career in 1966 as an apprentice engineer at Rolls-Royce headquarters in Crewe, England.

Mueller handled brand and product management during the relaunch of the Mini brand in 2001. He was responsible for BMW’s central marketing and brand management from 2004-2008.