Slideshow: New Models at Frankfurt Show

Auto makers showed off future and current models in a bid to kick start sales amid a slowly improving global economy. Many were looking years down the road by unveiling their latest electric models that are designed to go faster and farther.

Click the image at left to see photos of new vehicles.

Ferrari, Maserati Defy Recession With New Models

Luxury sports car maker Ferrari unveiled the 458 Italia at the Frankfurt Motor Show on Tuesday, its latest model for drivers rich enough to avoid having the recession curb their spending habits.

Even Ferrari, a unit of Fiat, wanted to avoid giving a sign that the pace of its annual product launches was slowing down because of the recession. “We wanted to give a strong sign that we are convinced by the innovation in this car,” Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said in a press briefing. “There is nothing in the car that is not competely new.”

Fiat Chairman: Too Early to Show New Chrysler Models

Fiat’s chairman said Tuesday he didn’t know when Chrysler would have a new model to show at a European motor show. “For the moment it’s too early to say,” Luca Cordero di Montezemolo told reporters while inspecting the Fiat stands at the Frankfurt auto show.

VW Looks to Get Even Bigger

Ferdinand Piech, Volkswagen AG’s powerful supervisory board chairman and former chief executive, said Monday that Europe’s largest auto maker by sales might pursue adding another two brands to its line-up after the takeover of Porsche Automobil Holding SE’s core sports-car operations is completed.

GM’s Statement on Opel/Vauxhall

General Motors confirmed that it will sell a 55% stake in German unit Adam Opel and its U.K. sister company Vauxhall to Canadian car-parts maker Magna International and Russian bank OAO Sberbank. Read the text of the GM announcement.

Ferrari Web Site Spins Out

Ferrari’s Web site crashed this morning after fans rushed to download newly released pictures of its latest model: the 458 Italia. While Ferrari.com says it’s taking a pit stop, the photos are below:

The 458 Italia, powered by a direct-injection V-8, tops out at 202 miles per hour. The company says it goes from zero to 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) in 3.4 seconds. Ferrari boasts that, at 17 miles to the gallon, the 458 Italia is a “major leap forward” in efficiency.

But, Ferrari says in its press release, the power of the 458 Italia also comes from a deeper place than its mid-rear mounted power plant. Ferrari’s racing experience is present in the 458 Italia “on a more emotional level, because of the strong emphasis on creating an almost symbiotic relationship between driver and car.” That relationship, the company hopes, will appeal to its target buyer, “owners for whom the priority is uncompromising on-road performance with occasional track day capability, but who still demand a car that is useable in day-to-day driving.”

Ferrari hasn’t released a price for the 458 Italia, which will be officially unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show in September.

GM Has High Hopes for Asia After Bankruptcy Exit

Following General Motors Co.’s exit from bankruptcy protection on Friday, the outlook for getting new financing and moving forward expansion in Asia has improved, Executive Vice President of GM International Operations Nick Reilly told Dow Jones Newswires on Monday.

“There was a cloud over getting new financing that has been lifted,” Reilly said in a telephone interview.

Talks with Korea Development Bank for financial aid for GM’s cash-strapped Korean unit GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. are “going well,” Reilly said, adding that he expects an agreement for a credit line in the next month or two.

Reilly said he expects the company’s Thailand operations to secure financing for a new truck program in the next 60 days. In India, the company has made “good progress” in identifying financing for an investment in an engine plant, he said.

Reilly also said if Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. were to succeed in its bid for a stake in Adam Opel GmbH, it wouldn’t be a “particular concern” competitively in China.

The former head of GM’s Asia operations was last week promoted to oversee all of the company’s businesses outside North America after CEO Fritz Henderson dropped its regional structure as part of efforts to rebuild its corporate culture. –Patricia Jiayi Ho

GM Bailing Out of Its Corporate Jets - Yes, Those Jets

GM, as part of its restructuring in bankruptcy, is looking to rid itself of its leases on seven corporate jets and its hangar at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, according to a motion filed in court.

The company is asking a judge to let it terminate the leases because it says it doesn’t plan to sell them to the New GM and that “the Debtors have determined that rejecting the Leases and surrendering possession of the property to the relevant lessor is in the best interests of their estates.”

Five of the jets are medium-range Gulfstream G-IVs, leased from AVN Air LLC. Two are longer-range Gulfstream G-Vs, leased from Suntrust Corp.

Lawmakers criticized the CEOs of GM, Ford, and Chrysler when the trio flew to Washington on separate private jets — as Auto Tracker first reported in November — to ask for government support for the auto industry. On a second trip, the executives drove to the capital from Detroit. Among the leases GM is seeking to terminate is one for the G-IV with the tail number N5116 that was spotted by ABC News at Washington’s Dulles airport during the testimony of then- CEO Rick Wagoner in Congress.

After last fall’s public relations debacle, GM said it was returning two of its seven planes to the leasing company, which it declined to name at the time. It said it had returned two others in September.

Indiana Funds, Chrysler File Appeals Briefs Over Sale

A group of Indiana pension funds said Thursday that the sale of the bulk of Chrysler LLC’s assets should be blocked because the U.S. government has overstepped its authority in helping orchestrate the deal.

GM to Keep Five Members on Current Board

General Motors Chairman Kent Kresa said Monday he will keep five current members of the board of directors, and said that the Obama administration has final say on who will fill out the new board.

Mr. Kresa also said GM has cancelled its Aug. 1 shareholder meeting after its common stockholders stand to be wiped out in bankruptcy court.

In looking to fill out the new board, Mr. Kresa said he is looking to appoint people with marketing and manufacturing experience, and “very broad management experience.”

He said he talks with the Obama administration’s automotive task force weekly about his board search, and said he is open to hearing the members of the administration “opine” on the composition of the board.

Mr. Kresa said GM’s bankruptcy is “bittersweet” because the company has a “new lease on life” but at the same time is leaving behind many workers, dealers and other constituents hurt by the bankruptcy.

As for the board’s role in the failure of GM to evade bankruptcy court, Mr. Kresa said he did not want to relive the past, but acknowledged “there have been some mistakes over a large amount of time (but) the reason for not being successful to date us complex.”

He said the reason for keeping some board members in the “new GM” is to ensure “continuity.” Now, his role is to “add capability to the board that will allow it to be successful.”

As for the shareholders wiped out by GM’s bankruptcy, Mr. Kresa said he directly feels their pain. “Since I am one of those shareholders I don’t feel real good about it.”