A Swedish government investigation of Russian billionaire Vladimir Antonov, the chairman and largest shareholder in Spyker Cars NV, led General Motors Co. to reject Spyker’s bid for Saab Automobile in December, according to Dagens Industri. Antonov had to sell his 30% stake and surrender his Spyker post so that the deal could go through last week.

The Swedish business daily, which quotes several government officials, says Swedish intelligence believes Antonov was involved in money laundering and has links to organized crime. Sweden sent the report to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, which passed it along to GM. Dagens Industri says the U.S. government, which owns 60.8% of GM’s common stock, ordered the company to drop the deal in December.

Russian bank Convers Group, which is controlled by Antonov and his father Alexander, was a financial backer of the original bid. Russian authorities have said they suspect that an assassination attempt on Alexander Antonov in early 2009 was related to his financial dealings. The elder Antonov survived after being shot seven times. Bloomberg News had reported that GM was demanding Vladimir Antonov’s ouster as a condition for approving a revised Spyker bid.

When GM announced the deal to sell Saab to Spyker last week, it said Antonov agreed to resign and sell his 30% stake to Tenaci Capital B.V., a company owned by Spyker CEO Vincent Muller. News reports say Dutch businessman Marcel Boekhoorn helped finance the purchase of shares from Antonov.

Spyker agreed to pay GM $74 million in cash and $326 million in preferred shares in the new company. Sweden has now agreed to guarantee a €400 million ($554 million) loan from the European Investment Bank.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based electric car startup Tesla Motors Inc. plans to go public with a $100 million share offering, according to its filing late last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company did not disclose when it plans to make the offering or whether it would increase the size of the offer from the $100 million “placeholder” amount in the filing.

Tesla says it has sold 937 of its $109,000 electric Roadsters since the vehicle went on sale in February 2008. The company says it has reservations for 2,000 of the $57,400 Model S electric sedans due in 2012.

The SEC filing provides the first peek at the privately held company’s finances. Tesla discloses it has lost $234 million since it was founded in 2003, including a $32 million loss in the first nine months of 2009. The company says achieving profitability would depend on the popularity of future vehicles such as the Model S.

Tesla’s revenue jumped to $93 million last year from $580,000 in 2008. But the company expects revenue to decline substantially when it stops producing the Roadster next year. Tesla doesn’t plan to build a revamped version of the car until at least 2013.

Tesla finalized the terms last month for a $465 million low-cost loan from the U.S. Dept. of Energy, which obtained warrants for 9.3 million common shares. CEO Elon Musk, who owns about a 36% stake, is Tesla’s largest shareholder. Blackstar Investco, comprised of Daimler AG and Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments, owns a 10% stake. Another Abu Dhabi firm, Al Wahada Capital, owns nearly 10%.

Toyota Motor Corp. says it will begin notifying U.S. customers this week about its plans to repair 2.3 million vehicles recalled last month for sticking accelerator pedals that can make the vehicles difficult to stop.

Toyota says it will insert a spacer in the pedal assembly to cause it to return smoothly to idle when a driver lifts his foot from the accelerator. The company says it presented the remedy to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which did not object.

The company also is launching a public relations blitz to try to limit the damage to its reputation. Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s U.S. unit, is scheduled to appear this morning on NBC’s Today show to explain the company’s plans to fix the recalled vehicles. Toyota rolled out full-page ads in major U.S. newspapers yesterday in an attempt to reassure customers.

CEO Akio Toyoda apologized to customers over the weekend, telling

Japanese television network NHK, “I am deeply sorry.” It was his first comment since early last week when Toyota said it was suspending U.S. sales and production of the eight models involved in the recall.

News reports suggest the company could resume production of those vehicles using a modified accelerator pedal in the second or third week of February.

Toyota Motor Corp. has recalled 1.8 million vehicles in Europe to fix the same problem that prompted its 2.3-million-vehicle recall in the U.S.: an accelerator mechanism that can stick in the open position.

Last week the company suspended North American sales and production of the eight models involved.

The company says it won’t need to halt production of those models in Europe because it began phasing out use of the pedals in August and stopped using them altogether in early January. Toyota tells Bloomberg News it began using a modified part after receiving complaints in Europe about the faulty pedal in late 2008. The company says it considered the problem a quality issue, but not a safety risk at that time, the news service reports.

U.S. lawmakers and safety advocates are questioning why Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration didn’t respond sooner to reports of sticking throttle pedals. Former NHTSA administrator Nicole Nason tells The Detroit News that Toyota brushed off the agency’s questions about a possible pedal defect in 2007 and 2008 by insisting the only problem was caused by floor mats. Toyota is recalling 5.4 million vehicles in the U.S. in a separate action involving floor mats that can jam the accelerator pedal in the open position.

The influential Consumer Reports says it is taking the unprecedented step of withdrawing its Recommended rating from the eight recalled models. In the past the magazine has withdrawn its recommendation for a single model, but never for so many at one time. CR adds that, aside from the accelerator defect, the models are “fundamentally good cars.”

America’s gross domestic product, which increased at a 2.2% annual rate in the third quarter of 2009, expanded at a 5.7% clip in the fourth quarter—the fastest pace in six years, the Dept. of Commerce reports.

The economy was buoyed by an 18% growth in exports. Consumer spending, which increased 2.8% in the third quarter, grew 2% in the final three months of the year. For the full year, GDP shrunk 2.4%, the biggest drop since 1946.

Some economists remain cautious about the second half of 2010 because they say the economy has benefited from temporary factors such as inventory rebuilding and government stimulus efforts in recent months. They say the economy will need higher employment, business investment and consumer spending to continue to recover.

American are more upbeat about the economy than they have been since January 2008, one month after the recession began, according to the University of Michigan.

The university’s consumer sentiment index rose to 74.4 in January from 72.5 in December. The index stood at 61.2 in January 2009. The survey’s gauges of present and future conditions also increased last month. The results mirrored the upswing in the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index, which was released last week.

University researchers say consumers believe the worst is over but expect income and job prospects to stagnate in the year ahead. The university expects consumer spending to grow 1.8% this year, which would be the slowest spending recovery since World War II.

Chrysler and Hyundai have reversed course and joined Ford and General Motors in offering $1,000 bonuses on trade-ins of Toyota vehicles in a move to capitalize on Toyota owners’ fears about its recalls of more than 7 million vehicles worldwide.

Chrysler is offering the rebates to owners of Toyota’s Tundra and Tacoma pickup trucks and Sienna minivans and to lessors of any Lexus, Scion or Toyota models who trade them in to purchase or lease a new Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep or Ram model. The incentives run through March.

Hyundai is offering the rebates to owners of any Toyota, Lexus or Scion vehicles who trade them in for a Hyundai Sonata midsize sedan or an Elantra compact sedan or wagon. The promotion expires today. Hyundai said previously it would not act like a “vampire” to feed off Toyota’s recall problems.

General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are offering $1,000 in cash to any customer who trades a Toyota, Lexus or Scion vehicle to buy or lease one of their vehicles. GM also offers the option of interest-free loans for as long as 60 months under the same conditions.

Volkswagen says it is considering incentives to attract Toyota owners. Honda says it won’t make any “predatory” offers.

Honda Motor Co. is recalling 140,000 Fit subcompact hatchbacks in the U.S. for a power window switch that can overheat and catch fire if large amounts of rain or snow seep into the driver’s side window.

The company also is recalling an additional 506,000 vehicles in Asia, Europe and Latin America, where the Fit also is known as the City or Jazz. The recall, which does not include vehicles sold in Japan, covers vehicles from the 2007-2008 model years.

The company will replace switches where necessary and install a waterproof skirt on the balance of the recalled vehicles. One death in a fire related to the defect has been reported in South Africa. Honda says no injuries have been reported in the U.S.

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. and affiliate Kia Motors Corp. reported large increases in earnings in the fourth quarter of 2009 despite a stronger currency, thanks to government incentives worldwide and surging demand for their vehicles.

Hyundai’s net income nearly quadrupled year over year to $808 million, as sales increased 9% to $8.2 billion. Global volume surged 52% to 892,000 units, including gains of 84% in China, 45% in the U.S. and 41% in India.

For the full year, Hyundai more than doubled its net profit to a record $2.5 billion. Revenue slipped 1% to $27.2 billion as demand increased 12% to 3.11 million vehicles.

Hyundai aims to sell 3.46 million vehicles worldwide this year and boost its U.S. market share to 4.6% from 4.2% in 2009.

Kia’s net profit soared eight-fold in the October-December period to a record $516 million as sales increased 14% to $4.9 billion year over year.

For the full year, Kia’s net earnings rocketed to a record $1.2 billion from $97 million in 2008. Sales jumped 12% to $15.7 billion as demand increased 9% to 1.53 million vehicles.

Kia expects to increase worldwide sales to 1.94 million this year and generate $26.2 billion in revenue. The company aims to boost its U.S. share to 3%-3.2% from 2.9% last year.

PSA Peugeot Citroen says it is recalling more than 90,000 vehicles produced at a joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp. in the Czech Republic because those models use the same defective throttle pedal that triggered a recall of 4 million Toyota vehicles worldwide.

The recall involves Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1 city cars, but the company has not yet identified the model years covered. The vehicles share parts with the Toyota Aygo built at the Czech factory.

Separately, Ford Motor Co. says it has resumed production of diesel-powered Transit fullsize commercial vans in China after a three-day halt. The vans use accelerator pedals made by Elkhart, Ind.-based CTS Corp., which also supplied Toyota with the defective pedals. Ford says it has determined that its parts are not faulty.

Ford says it has received no reports of problems with the vans, which are produced in a joint venture with Jiangling Motors Corp. CTS has said that the pedals are tailored to each carmaker’s designs and specifications.

Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford Jr. and four partners have launched Fontinalis Partners LLC, a Detroit-based venture capital firm that will act as a strategic operating partner to transportation technology companies. The firm, which was founded late last year, is not affiliated with Ford Motor.

Fontinalis’ other founding partners are:

• Ralph Booth II, chairman and CEO of private investment firm Booth American Co.
• Mark Shulz, president of Ford’s international operations until 2007. He has since run his own management consulting firm, MA Schulz & Associates.
• Chris Cheever, who worked previously for New Haven, Conn.-based venture capital firm Launch Partners and New York City-based private equity firm Highbridge Capital Management LLC.
• Chris Thomas, a former analyst of sustainable business development at Ford. Thomas and Cheever are Fontinalis’ founding principals.

Bill Ford says the firm will invest in companies providing “transformational ideas and products” devoted to solving environmental and mobility issues.

The company has already invested an undisclosed amount in Atlanta-based Parkmobile USA Inc., which allows drivers to pay for parking by using their mobile phones. Schulz has been named Park Mobile’s chairman.