Toyota has announced a joint venture with Tesla to reopen NUMMI and hire 1000 workers. While this does not reinstate the facility to its pre-closure size, it is welcome news in recession ravaged California. Previous posts about the NUMMI closure are here and here.

For the first time in its 102 year history, General Motors sold more vehicles in China than in the United States. GM was narrowly edged by Toyota as the world's largest automaker, a position held by GM for 76 years until 2007 when Toyota took the lead. GM sales were up 29% in China, 12.4% in Russia and 10.4% in Brazil.