Forums: Renault

General Motors Corp. is in talks about potentially turning its Saturn division over to Renault SA, allowing the French auto maker to use the brand as a launching pad for growth in North America, two people familiar with the matter said. Meanwhile, Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. has submitted a bid to acquire GM's Saab unit, people familiar with the situation said. Renault is one of several auto makers and other suitors interested in taking Saturn over from GM. The U.S. auto maker is surviving on $15.4 billion in government loans and is under pressure to restructure its balance sheet, union...

France has provoked accusations of protectionism after carmaker Renault announced it would repatriate part of its production from Eastern Europe to France. Renault announced that Clio Campus cars currently made at the Novo mesto plant in Slovenia would be produced at the Flins plant, west of Paris from June, saying the switch would create 400 jobs. It came despite previous guarantees from France that it would not resort to protectionism to safeguard French jobs in the economic downturn. President Nicolas Sarkozy caused outrage in Eastern Europe last month by proposing to "re-localise" car plants run by French producers. He granted...

CASCAIS, Portugal (AFP) - The head of French automaker Renault, Carlos Ghosn, said Thursday that a country in the Gulf region is interested in his company's environmentally friendly electronic car project. "We are negotiating to launch an electric car with a Gulf state," Ghosn told a news conference here near Lisbon.

JERUSALEM — Israel, tiny and bereft of oil, has decided to embrace the electric car. On Monday, the Israeli government will announce its support for a broad effort to promote the use of electric cars, embracing a joint venture between an American-Israeli entrepreneur and Renault and its partner, Nissan Motor Company.

BANGALORE, India, Nov. 16 — India’s leading sport utility maker plans to sell its S.U.V.’s and pickup trucks in the United States through an American distributor, bringing Indian-made vehicles to the United States for the first time. “Half of the global sales in S.U.V.’s and pickups is in the United States and we want to capture at least a fraction of that to start with,” said Pawan Goenka, president of the automotive division of Mahindra & Mahindra, the Indian manufacturer. The United States is the “ultimate market,” he said in a telephone interview from Mumbai. Mahindra & Mahindra plans to...