Detroit, Michigan  - The mood was sombre at Detroit's annual auto show, which is usually a glitzy affair and time of celebration for the US car industry. But 2008 was a year like no other and saw car sales plummet to their lowest level in decades.

The North American International Auto Show, which opened for a three-day media preview Sunday, had domestic and foreign carmakers unveil their latest US models amid an uncertain future for the world's most lucrative car market.

Detroit, Michigan - Ailing US carmaker Chrysler is confident of receiving a further 3 billion dollars in order to survive, the firm's head said Sunday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan.

Chief Executive Officer Robert Nardelli said he was confident the company would receive the second part of a 7-billion-dollar bail-out that is dependent on a restructuring of the third largest carmaker in the United States.

Chrysler received 4 billion dollars of government aid in January, which it used to pay employees and suppliers and to incentivize car dealers.

Nardelli said the company was not "hibernating" while it waited for a buy-out, Bloomberg News reported.

Detroit, Michigan  - The Hyundai Genesis was named 2009 North American Car of the Year at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Sunday.

Detroit, Michigan  - The Ford F-150 was named the 2009 North American Truck of the Year at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Sunday.

The decision was made by a jury of 50 motoring journalists from the United States and Canada, the show's organizers said in a statement.

"Winning 2009 North America Truck of the Year honours is a special distinction because it acknowledges the team's efforts to push harder and deliver even more for customers - including quality, safety leadership, unsurpassed fuel economy and smart features aimed at further improving their productivity," said Mark Fields, Ford's president for the Americas.

Berlin  - Germany is to inject government funding into engine-design work in the car industry, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a newspaper interview published Sunday.

She spoke as the industry, a key German exporter, scales back production amid plunging worldwide sales.

"Germany invented the first cars a century ago. Now we are in a fresh competition to see if German industry can build the 21st century car," Merkel, who has a doctorate in physics, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

She said German carmakers had to try harder to innovate.