AAP

Auto giants Toyota and BMW say they have reached an agreement to collaborate on research for cleaner, next-generation car batteries, underlining the growing push in the industry for green technology.

The agreement brings together Toyota Motor Corp, Japan’s No 1 carmaker and a leader in gas-electric hybrids, and BMW AG of Germany, a European maker that has a strong luxury brand image in both Japan and Europe.

We are now joining forces to further develop environmentally-friendly technologies and to expand our innovation leadership in each of our segments, Norbert Reithofer, chairman of BMW, said in a statement.

The two carmakers will also work on improving lithium-ion battery technology, typically used in batteries for electronic gadgets and relatively new to autos.

Toyota has struggled to find a good lithium-ion battery for its green cars and is using technology from Japanese electronics maker Sanyo Electric Co in its latest plug-in hybrid, for which Toyota has recently started taking orders.

Toyota had worked with Panasonic Corp on a battery before the electronics maker acquired Sanyo, partly to get better lithium-ion technology.

This collaboration will allow for the development of the next-generation battery faster and at a higher level, Toyota Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada told reporters in Tokyo.

Toyota and BMW have been engaged in extended discussions on technology and plan to collaborate on other medium-term and long-term projects, he said.

BMW will also begin supplying clean diesel engines to Toyota in 2014 for models for the European market.

Diesel engines for passenger cars are huge in Europe but have yet to take off in the US or Japan, the two major markets where Toyota is strong, and so Toyota does not have enough clean diesel for its European offerings.

Under their co-operative agreement, BMW is supplying 1.6 litre and 2.0 litre fuel-efficient diesel engines for Toyota.

The announcement was timed with the Tokyo Motor Show, which opens to the public on Saturday.

STRASBOURG, France – France and Germany agreed on Thursday to stop arguing in public over whether the European Central Bank should do more to rescue the euro zone from a deepening sovereign debt crisis.

President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel said after talks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti that they trusted the independent central bank and would not touch its inflation-fighting mandate when they propose changes of the European Union’s treaty to achieve closer fiscal union.

They also demonstrated their backing for Monti, an unelected technocrat, to surmount Italy’s daunting economic challenges, in contrast to the barely concealed disdain they showed for his predecessor, media billionaire Silvio Berlusconi.

“We all stated our confidence in the ECB and its leaders and stated that in respect of the independence of this essential institution we must refrain from making positive or negative demands of it,” Sarkozy told a joint news conference in the eastern French city of Strasbourg.

French ministers have called for the central bank to intervene massively to counter a market stampede out of euro zone government bonds, while Merkel and her ministers have said the EU treaty bars it from acting as a lender of last resort.

The Netherlands however moved closer to endorsing the ECB as lender of last resort, apparently breaking ranks with Germany.

Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said he would prefer that the European Financial Stability Facility, the euro zone bailout fund, should be strengthened.

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MADRID Spain’s opposition conservatives swept commandingly into power and into the hot seat Sunday as voters enduring a 21.5 percent jobless rate and stagnant economy dumped the Socialists the third time in as many weeks Europe’s debt crisis has claimed a government.

Awaiting words from victorious party leader and future prime minister Mariano Rajoy, thousands of jubilant, cheering supporters waving red-and-yellow Spanish flags and blue-and-white party ones gathered outside Popular Party headquarters in downtown Madrid as pop music boomed over loudspeakers.

Conservative Popular Party supporters wave flags while waiting for the results of the general elections, in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Read more…

EMI, the British music firm, will sell its recorded music unit for 1.2 billion.

Universal Music has agreed to the price and will include artists such as Coldplay, the Beatles and Pink Floyd.

While EMI, has a history dating in the UK dating back to 1897, it was taken over by a private equity company around the time of the GFC and has recently been in the hands of Citigroup.

Citigroup seized ownership of EMI in February after previous owner Terra Firma failed to pass a solvency test.

Universal Music is a unit of Vivendi, a French media company.

US stocks fell on Friday, ending four weeks of back-to-back gains, as political instability resurfaced in Europe and investors braced for a confidence vote in Greece after US markets close.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 61.23 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 11,983.24. The Standard Poor’s 500 Index lost 7.92 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 1253.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 11.82 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 2686.15.

SPI futures dropped 27 points to 4258, indicating losses at the start of local sharemarket trade on Monday.

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AAP

Beleaguered Saab appears to have once again narrowly avoided bankruptcy, announcing on Friday that two Chinese companies will buy it for 100 million euros ($A132.8 million), making it the second Swedish carmaker, after Volvo, to take the road to China.

After the better part of seven months of agony for the company, we have come to a point where we can proudly say that we made it, Saab’s chief executive, Victor Muller, who has been scrambling for months to secure enough funding to keep the company afloat, told a conference call from Amsterdam.

His comments came after Saab’s Dutch parent company, Swedish Automobile (Swan), also headed by Muller, announced Chinese companies Youngman and Pang Da had agreed to buy the struggling carmaker for 100 million euros.

The deal, which requires approval from a long line of interested parties, follows numerous other funding attempts to keep Saab going, including an agreement in July with the same two Chinese companies that earlier this week appeared to have fallen through.

Pang Da and Youngman had agreed to inject 245 million euros into the company in a deal including joint ventures and about half of Saab’s shares; they also agreed to provide 70 million euros in bridge funding to tide the company over during a three-month restructuring that began in September.

However, late last week, Saab’s court-appointed administrator, Guy Lofalk, applied for the reorganisation to be halted – a move that would effectively have put the company at the mercy of its creditors and likely pushed it quickly into bankruptcy – deeming that the funding deal had collapsed.

Swan also said on Sunday it had terminated the deal since its Chinese partners had failed to provide the agreed funds and had instead offered to purchase all of Saab.

But after deeming the initial undisclosed proposal unacceptable, Muller said Friday the terms had been dramatically renegotiated and were now favourable, while Lofalk withdrew his petition to abandon the reorganisation.

Muller pointed out that Youngman, which will take 60 per cent of Saab, and Pang Da, which will take the remaining 40 per cent, had agreed to provide long term funding to Saab that was way in excess of the (245 million euros) in the original agreement.

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