In an effort to save OAO AvtoVAZ from financial collapse, Russia has pledged as much as $1.73 billion to the cash-strapped company. Moscow already has pledged $850 million in aid to AvtoVAZ, which owes more than $2 billion in short-term loans.

Renault SA, which bought a 25% stake in AvtoVAZ last year, has agreed with affiliate Nissan Motor Co. to contribute about $450 million in technical know-how to the Russian company.

Under an agreement signed on Friday, Renault will provide AvtoVAZ access to its low-cost Logan platform. It also will help the Russian automaker develop a new entry-level vehicle to replace the Lada Classic. AvtoVAZ says the new vehicles will enable it to boost output at its underutilized assembly plant in Togliatti to 900,000 units a year by 2015 from an expected 400,000 this year. Powertrain capacity at the facility will be increased too. The partners also plan to begin making Nissan vehicles by late 2011 or early 2012. Lada models are expected to account for 70% of AvtoVAZ’s output.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also suggests that Renault may increase its stake in AvtoVAZ if the Russian government invests in Renault. But the French automaker reiterates that it has no plans to make an additional equity investment in AvtoVAZ.

A two-phase price hike on new vehicles sold in India is expected over the next six months, The Economic Times says. The newspaper says the first increase is being driven by higher raw material costs, but the second one will come from stricter emission standards due next spring.

Market-leader Maruti Suzuki forecasts that raw material prices will rise 5%-7% over the next five months. The company is in the process of negotiating new supply contracts. Mahindra & Mahindra also is in talks with its suppliers.

Upgrading vehicles to meet the new emission standards is expected to increase sticker prices $100-$300. The rising value of the yen also is raising the price of imported parts and vehicles from Japan.

Hyundai Motor Co. says it will open its third assembly plant in Beijing in about two years. Intended to make midsize and larger cars, the $800 million facility will increase combined output for Hyundai and its Kia Motors Corp. affiliate from a planned 1 million units to 1.3 million cars.

To date, Hyundai has focused its Chinese operations on subcompact cars. The company and partner Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp. currently operate two vehicle assembly facilities and a pair of engine plants there. Hyundai-Kia sales are on pace to total 800,000 vehicles this year, and the duo forecasts sales of 1 million units next year.

Separately, The Nikkei says Hyundai is dropping out of the Japanese market, where it has struggled since entering the country eight years ago. Hyundai has sold fewer than 800 vehicles in Japan through the first 10 months of the year, according to the newspaper.

Chinese and French officials signed a series of more than 40 economic and trade agreements in Paris on Friday. China says the pacts cover the electricity, machinery, nuclear energy, telecommunications, transportation and service industries. Specific details haven’t been released yet.

Bilateral trade between the two countries totaled nearly $25 billion through September, down 16% from the same period last year. If the trend holds, it would be the first year-on-year decline since 1996.

Relations between the two nations have suffered recently over France’s support of Tibet, which included a meeting last year between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader. In protest of the meeting, China canceled talks with the European Union and prompted a Chinese backlash against French products.

To help restore relations, Sarkozy has met with Chinese President Hu Jintao during two international summits this year. In addition, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and a delegation of business leaders visited China last month. Additional meetings are planned for next month.

Some component suppliers for Tata Motors Ltd.’s $2,500 Nano compact car are delaying plans to set up production sites near the new Nano plant being constructed in Sanand, India, due to disagreements over compensation, The Economic Times reports. The Indian newspaper says vendors also are upset about the slow ramp-up of vehicle production and recent design changes to the car that have increased their costs.

Tata abandoned the nearly completed original Nano site in Singur last year following confrontations with local farmers over land ownership. Production of the car was delayed several months before two existing Tata plants began making the microcar in low volumes early this year. The new plant under construction in the state of Gujarat is due to begin making cars in January or February.

Relocating production also meant relocating a supplier park and other supplier facilities from Singur to Sanand. The combined cost to suppliers is about $32 million, according to The ET. Tata insists it is working with suppliers to resolve any cost issues. But some companies are hesitant about making new investments.

Nearly half of the 100 primary tier-one suppliers to the Nano will be co-located at an adjacent supplier plant at Sanand. Unlike the remote site in Singur, which included seven second-tier suppliers, the new Sanand complex will house only first-tier companies.

Tata says most of the co-located suppliers have been allotted plots. Suppliers tell the newspaper that only Amtek, Anand group, Behr, Caparo, Gabirel, JBM, Purolator, Rico and a few others have broken ground for new plants. Tata says it expects all companies that promised to locate at the park will do so.

The head of one unidentified Delhi-based supplier says the initial reimbursement Tata offered for moving production wasn’t acceptable. Higher overhead costs further slice or eliminate already thin margins.

Caparo group CEO Angad Paul says the relocation and slow ramp-up at existing plants has made for a challenging year. Caparo, which supplies body parts for the Nano, says it will not move its equipment in Singur to Sanand until the new Tata plant comes on line.

Japan’s Meiko Electronics Co. is installing a production line for a new type of printed circuit board at an existing plant in Wuhan, China. The $23 million line is to begin production in May with capacity to make 430,000 sq ft of boards per month.

The circuit boards are designed especially for hybrid and all-electric vehicles, with a copper thickness as much as 10 times that of boards used elsewhere. Meiko anticipates that increasing demand for EVs and hybrids will help it double sales of printed circuit boards for the automotive sector to about $320 million between now and the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. The company already supplies units for use in audio, navigation and powertrain applications.

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. President Chen Hong says the company plans to join an unidentified British partner in buying the assets of bankrupt commercial truckmaker LDV. He says at least some production will be kept in the U.K., although some parts will be supplied from China. The announcement counters rumors that all production would move to China, where SAIC would build the Maxus microbus next to its own Roewe cars.

Reports last month indicated that LDV’s administrator, PricewaterhouseCoopers, hoped to sell the company by the end of November to Eco Concept, an electric car startup company headed by Qu Li, a former industrial consultant for MG Rover Group. Li said she intended to make 2,000 electric vans annually at LDV’s plant in the U.K. Malaysia’s Weststar also had been vying for LDV.

SAIC already has a joint venture with Italy’s Iveco to produce commercial vehicles. But that deal doesn’t include provisions to market the vehicles under its own brand.

LDV, which had been under Russian ownership, entered receivership in June. It has the capacity of building 13,000 vehicles a year in the U.K. SAIC will start making its new MG6 hatchback-unveiled last week at the Guangzhou auto show-at its Longbridge plant in the U.K. late next year. SAIC, which has partnerships with General Motors and Volkswagen, acquired the rights for platforms and technologies of the former MG Rover company.

Russia’s new customs agreement with Belarus could result in a surge of cheap used cars being imported into Russia through next July, says Vedomosti.

Several Russian car dealers tell the Moscow daily newspaper that a loophole in the tariff pact would allow private citizens to import cars at a much lower rate than businesses can for the first six months of the agreement.

Starting in January, tariffs on new cars in Belarus and Russia will be equalized at 30%, Russia’s current rate. But tariffs on used vehicles shipped by individuals to Russia can be cut to one-fourth the rate paid by businesses. Dealers are urging the governments to avoid the problem by equalizing both tariffs simultaneously.

Suzuki Motor Corp. broke ground earlier today on a new $230 million plant in Rayong, Thailand. Production at the facility is due to start in spring 2012.

The factory will make about 10,000 1.3-liter-engine cars in the first year, and eventually increase annual output to at least 100,000 units. Much of the volume will be exported to neighboring countries in southeast Asia. In addition to assembling vehicles, the plant will produce engines and conduct press, welding and painting operations.

Suzuki announced plans for the plant two years ago after the company was approved by the Thai government to be part of the country’s eco-car initiative. Suzuki had initially intended to invest about $350 million and begin production next summer. Construction was postponed last year amid the global recession.

Suzuki already makes motorcycles in Thailand, but this will be its first automobile production facility there. The company says the new production unit, Suzuki Automobile Manufacturing, will take over distribution from a local sales affiliate in Thailand.

Thailand’s eco-car program, which was announced two years ago, provides tax breaks for companies that agree to produce vehicles in Thailand that get 47 mpg, comply with Euro IV emission standards and are powered by engines displacing less than 1.4 liters. Annual production must reach 100,000 units within five years.

Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Tata and Toyota also have indicated they would participate. Nissan is the only other company with a firm launch date: It plans to start making a new small car in Thailand next spring. Volkswagen also has stated interest as part of a broad expansion into southeast Asia but hasn’t formally committed yet.

Toyota Motor Corp. may set up engine and transmission production operations as part of its upcoming vehicle assembly plant in Bangalore, India, says Hiroshi Nakagawa, who heads the company’s Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) joint venture. Nakagawa tells reporters in New Delhi he is pushing to add such production in part to help boost local content.

TKM is investing $685 million in the new plant, its second in India. The facility, which will have an initial annual capacity of 70,000 units, will begin making a small car in about two years. Output may eventually be increased to 200,000 units per year.

Toyota’s existing plant in Bangalore has a capacity to build 80,000 vehicles per year. It currently makes the Innova utility van and Corolla Altis sedan, which have local content levels of about 50%.