Smart For-Us concept unveiled at 2012 Detroit show

Smart made a splash with its world debut at the 2012 Detroit auto show: its For-Us concept car provides a vision of the Smart as an American icon, a pick-up. The diminutive truck - just 3547mm long - is longer than a Fortwo, and is supposed to be based on the running gear of the next-gen Smart Forfour, aka the new Renault Twingo. So if the For-Us doesn't look so much like a Smart any more, from the front at least, that's why.

NADA asks U.S. to suspend clunkers program

National Automobile Dealers Association officials asked the government to suspend the cash-for-clunkers program because a survey by the group found that the $3 billion fund has been exhausted, NADA Chairman John McEleney said. "We asked them to put a halt to the program--I think we said 'very soon'--but a suspension at midnight tonight would make sense," McEleney said in an interview Wednesday. "Our survey opened the eyes of the Transportation Department." A suspension would allow dealers to submit all pending claims and permit the government to process them so that a precise determination could be made of how much money, if any, is left in the program, he said.

GM's top battery executive for the Volt to join California startup

General Motors's top executive in charge of developing batteries for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid is leaving to take a position with an unnamed startup battery company in California. Denise Gray, 46, global director of rechargeable energy storage systems, will step down March 5 after more than three years in the post. This was “an opportunity that I could just not resist,” Gray said in a phone interview.