VW to announce Italdesign takeover on Tuesday

Volkswagen will announce Tuesday that it will take a 90 percent stake in Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A, people familiar with the matter told Automotive News Europe. The Giugiaro family will retain 10 percent in the Italian design house that is famous for styling cars such as the first-generation VW Golf. VW plans to acquire control of Italdesign to help reach its goal of becoming the world's largest automaker by 2018 with sales of 10 million vehicles a year.

Nissan Juke-R races Ferrari 458, Lamborghini Gallardo & Mercedes SLS AMG

Nissan Juke-R takes on Supercars in Dubai The Juke with the heart of a GT-R – the Nissan Juke-R – takes on a Ferrari 458, Lamborghini Gallardo and Mercedes SLS AMG in Dubai. We’re not entirely sure how the Nissan Juke-R – the love child of a Juke and a GT-R – ended up in Dubai pitted in a race against a selection of the world’s best supercars – but it did. Let’s call it serendipity.

Chrysler is set to invest $500 million in Toledo Jeep assembly plant

Chrysler Group plans to invest $500 million in its Toledo North Assembly Plant and hire a second shift of workers over the next year to build a new Fiat-based SUV for Jeep, as well as other vehicles. "This plant has been chosen to build the future Jeep SUV to replace the current Jeep Liberty that will be exported to markets all over the world," CEO Sergio Marchionne said at the plant Wednesday. "Jeep is at the heart of our plans to internationalize Chrysler, a process which is being accelerated by Chrysler's access to Fiat's distribution capabilities in Europe and Latin America." Toledo North is Chrysler's only assembly plant with only one shift of workers.