Geneva  - Daimler's luxury Maybach brand is launching an even more luxurious version at the Geneva Motor Show next month with a shoulder-line in contrasting colour and a more powerful 640 hp engine.

Wind noise has been reduced by modified exterior mirrors with a more "expressive" look.

The stylish elegance is accentuated by an exclusive Californian- beige, leather interior and the "Maybach Zeppelin" lettering found on the boot lid, front grille, the key and champagne glass. Only 100 of the limited edition Maybach 57 Zeppelin and Maybach 62 Zeppelin will be built at a price of 483,140 euros (623,758 dollars) and 563,108 euros respectively.

Tokyo  - Honda

Beijing  - Nearly 1,500 new cars drive out every day onto the already-clogged streets of Beijing, which has been ranked among the world's most polluted cities.

"The growing number of automobiles is creating serious traffic pressure and safety risks in the city," Song Jianguo, head of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

The Chinese capital registered 65,970 new cars in the first 45 days of the year, creating an average daily increase of 1,466 vehicles, the bureau said.

The new registrations brought the total number of Beijing's cars to 3.56 million.

Beijing  - A Chinese car maker has held talks over buying General Motors' Hummer-brand sports utility vehicle unit, an official of the Chinese firm said on Tuesday in response to a report by Bloomberg News.

"We should keep it a secret for the time being," the official from the Sichuan Auto Industry Group said when asked about talks with GM over the Hummer unit.

Bloomberg quoted unidentified sources as saying Sichuan Auto, one of China's smaller auto makers, could pay up to 500 million dollars for Hummer.

Vienna  - The car industry in Central and Eastern Europe is expected to recover soon from the current crisis and to suffer less than producers in Western Europe, according to a study released in Vienna on Monday.

While industry and logistics experts at the Fraunhofer Austria Research institute said in their study that production would stagnate in Western Europe and the United States until 2012, the CEE region would see growth rates of 30 per cent.

Hinduja group owned Commercial vehicles manufacturer, Ashok Leyland has announced various measures to tackle situation caused under the impact of global slowdown, including reshaping of its investment plans from Rs 3,200-3,300 crore to Rs 2,000 crore, cost cutting measures, salary cut and retrenchment in some segments.