Taipei - Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC) will join Japans's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd in developing regional jets, the Central News Agency (CNA) said Saturday.

Mitsubishi has invited AIDC to jointly develop regional jets due to AIDC 's capability in aircraft design and manufacturing, CNA quoted Economics Minister Yin Chi-ming as saying.

AIDC and Mitsubishi have formed a "partnership relationship" on developing commercial regional jets. Yin will visit Mitsubishi's aeronautics department next week to push the deal, CNA said.

Berlin - Defying recession, the Skoda division of German Volkswagen intends to expand its factory in China and build another in India, according to the chief brand officer at Skoda, Reinhard Jung.

In a report released Saturday by the German weekly Auto Motor und Sport, he said, "This year we want to double our Chinese capacity, which is currently 50,000 to 60,000." He said Skoda would set up new factories in Russia and China.

Bangkok  - Thai-based car manufacturers have lowered their production targets to 1.08 million vehicles this year, down 23 per cent from 2008 output of 1.4 million cars, media reports said Saturday.

Of the targeted 1.08 million units, 500,000 are expected to be sold on the domestic market and 580,000 exported.

"This figure is an estimate based on the present situation," said Piengjai Kaewsuwan, chairman of the Automotive Industry Club, which met Friday.

Munich- A dramatic slump in year-end deliveries saw luxury carmaker BMW post its first annual decline in sales for 15 years, according to figures for 2008 released Friday.

The Munich-based company said it sold 1.44 million cars last year, a drop of 4.3 per cent compared to 2007 when BMW recorded its best year ever.

It was the first annual decline in sales since 1983 when the boom triggered by German unification three years earlier began to fade.

Paris - French carmaker Renault said Friday that, because of the economic crisis, worldwide sales of its vehicles fell by 4.2 per cent in 2008.

Tokyo - Toyota Motor Corporation has decided to promote Vice President Akio Toyoda to become company president in June, Japanese media reports said Friday.

Japan's leading automaker hopes to pull the business out of its slump by appointing the first founding family member in 14 years to head the company, Jiji Press quoted sources as saying.