General Motors Corp. (GM) will sign an initial agreement Thursday to build an engine and transmission plant for passenger vehicles in India, a senior executive at its local unit said Wednesday.

The plant will be set up at Talegaon, near Pune city, in the western state of Maharashtra, Ankush Arora, vice president in charge of marketing, sales and service at General Motors India Pvt. Ltd. said.

“We will be signing a memorandum of understanding with the Maharashtra government tomorrow (Thursday),” Arora said.

Luxury. Design. Prestige. All three are hallmarks of Buick’s legacy that, in order to revive the brand in the U.S., must be present in every new vehicle. Although the division has had some success in doing so with the popular Enclave crossover, it’s looking to its operations in China - a market where the brand all but dominates the middle-and upper-luxury segments - to resuscitate its ailing U.S. wing.

The military credits its new crop of hulking armored vehicles with saving hundreds of soldiers’ skins. But these Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) behemoths come with all kinds of problems, as well. They’re too bulky to drive through Iraqi alleyways and Afghan trails. And they’re prone to roll-overs. So the Army and Marines are looking for a next-gen MRAP, that combines the “agility, maneuverability and mobility” of a Humvee, with the protection of the brawny new vehicles.

General Motors plans to invest $500 million on its all-new global compact car, the Chevrolet Cruze, being built at its Lordstown, Ohio plant. Later it will also be built in Europe and in the Asia Pacific for sales in the region.

Banking on the demand for small niche cars, the auto maker has increased production of compact cars after a drop in sales of its profitable pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles due to high fuel prices.

Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury brand slipped 4% in consumer’s eyes to tie with Hyundai and GM’s GMC division at No.4. Nissan, Mazda and Kia followed the Blue Oval brands with a 3% improvement. Nissan pulled equal to the industry average while Mazda and Kia dropped below average.

Nonetheless, the survey leaves little for auto makers to look forward to, as it also forecasts weak consumer spending with growth of no more than 2.3% in the third quarter.

General Motors announced plans yesterday to install 8,700 solar panels on the roof of its White Marsh transmission plant by spring through a partnership with Beltsville’s SunEdison, North America’s largest provider of solar energy services.

The 300,000-square-foot solar project will be one of the biggest on the East Coast, generating enough electricity to power up to 150 households and reducing the plant’s utility bill along with its reliance on Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.

General Motors Corp. today gave the first public peek at the design of the Chevrolet Cruze compact car as it announced plans to invest more than $500 million in the United States to build the vehicle.
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GM plans to officially unveil the Cruze, which is being built on GM’s global compact car architecture, at the Paris auto show next month.

Building small cars in the U.S. has generally been a money-losing venture for General Motors Corp. (GM)

But now the auto maker believes it has found the formula to turn a profit on compact cars, even if those cars are built by union labor in a traditional Rust Belt town.

GM on Thursday will announce a major investment in its Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant designed to ready the factory for a next-generation compact car: the Chevrolet Cruze.

In a last-ditch attempt to move inventory from dealers’ lots, GM is launching the 100th Anniversary Sales Event, a promotion offering employee pricing on all remaining 2008 models.

The program, which begins tomorrow and runs through September 2, offers pricing normally reserved for GM employees. All 2008 Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Saturn, Cadillac, Saab, and Hummer models are applicable (excluding medium duty trucks), as are the 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt and HHR, Pontiac Vibe and G5, and Cadillac CTS.

Auto makers are angling to carve out their own niches in fuel-efficient design, from expansion of the gasoline-electric hybrid technology already available in the Toyota Prius to the new plug-in hybrid vehicle known as the Volt under development by General Motors Corp.

The Chevrolet Volt will be able to go at least 40 miles on its lithium-ion battery. Above, GM CEO Rick Wagoner rides in a Volt at a Las Vegas trade event last January.