PSA Peugeot Citroen SA, which sold 272,000 cars in China last year to achieve a 3.4% share of the market, hopes to capture 8% of the China market by 2016.

Jean-Marc Gales, executive vice president of PSA brands, forecasts the company’s sales in China will rocket 30% this year—double his prediction for the market as a whole. He says growth will be led by a bevy of new PSA models being introduced in China.

Last year PSA launched the Peugeot 207 hatchback and sedan and Citroen C-Quatre and C-Elysee compact sedans in China. In November, Peugeot’s joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Group Co. opened its second assembly factory in Wuhan. The plant currently makes the Citroen C5 sedan.

The new Peugeot 408 was unveiled last week in Beijing. PSA hopes to sell 100,000 of the vehicles in China.

Designed specifically for the Chinese market, the midsize 408 will be produced in Wuhan and will go on sale in China in April. CEO Philippe Varin previously has said China is a top priority for PSA. The company also is considering a second joint venture in China that would produce low-priced commercial vehicles.

Tata Motors Ltd. is close to hiring Carl-Peter Forster to succeed Ratan Tata, according to Wirtschaftswoche. The German newspaper, which doesn’t cite its sources, says Forster would be in charge of Tata’s passenger and commercial vehicle operations. Ratan Tata, who heads the overall Tata Group conglomerate as well as several individual subsidiaries, has indicated that he plans to retire in coming years.

Forster headed General Motors Co..’s European unit until he left the company last November. Since then, he has been rumored to be a candidate for several top auto industry posts, including the top job at Tata’s Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) unit.

David Smith, 48, resigned abruptly last week as JLR’s CEO. A 27-year veteran with Ford Motor Co., Smith was director of JLR when Tata bought the two brands from Ford two years ago. Tata Director Ravi Kant has been named interim CEO.

At GM, Forster supported a plan to sell the company’s Opel unit to Canada’s Magna International Inc. and Russia’s OAO Sberbank. GM eventually opted to keep Opel, and Forster left soon thereafter.

The 55-year-old Forster joined GM in 2001 as the head of Opel. He previously worked for BMW AG and McKinsey consulting.

Yesterday India committed to reducing its carbon emissions 20%-25% by 2020 from 2005 levels. China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, had already pledged to cut carbon by 40% to 45% by 2020 compared with its 2005 output.

Neither country explicitly signed on to the Copenhagen accord reached in December, although they both met the Jan. 31 deadline stipulated from that meeting. Whereas developing countries were to present voluntary emission reduction targets, other countries have submitted more comprehensive plans.

India, the world’s fifth-largest polluter, hasn’t specified how it plans to cut emissions. The country’s agricultural sector isn’t included in the plan.

By cutting greenhouse gas emissions, scientists hope to limit global warming to a less than 2°C change in average global temperature. Anything above this, they warn, could have a catastrophic effect on the global ecosystem. Some critics say the promises made by industrialized countries under the Copenhagen agreement aren’t substantial enough to prevent greater temperature increases.

The U.S. plan is targeting a 4% reduction from 1990 levels—17% below 2005 output— by 2020. The European Union plans to cut emissions by 20% below 1990 levels and has agreed to a 30% cut pending similar cuts by other countries.

At a meeting last week in New Delhi, officials from Brazil, China, India and South Africa called upon developed countries to act on a pledge made in Copenhagen to contribute $10 billion to help poor countries deal with the effects of climate change.

Toyota Motor Corp. expects global sales, including its Daihatsu and Hino units, to grow 6% to nearly 8.3 million units combined this year, fueled by strong growth in China and India and an expected recovery in North America. Last year, the group’s sales fell 13% to 7.8 million vehicles.

For 2010, Toyota predicts that sales of its Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands will grow 6% to 7.4 million vehicles. It says demand for Daihatsu minicars should increase 3% to 770,000 units. It also expects Hino’s sales of commercial trucks to jump 24% to 100,000 units.

Toyota anticipates growth in all major markets except Europe, where it says demand will likely fall 5% to 840,000 units as government scrappage incentive are ended or cut back. It predicts sales will grow:

• 13% to 800,000 in China
• 12% to 62,000 in India
• 11% to 2.2 million in North America
• 9% to 1.5 million in Japan

Toyota’s year-over-year production outside Japan increased for the fifth straight month in December, thanks to increases in Asia and North America. Overseas production of Daihatsu vehicles fell 13% to 111,500 vehicles last year—the first downturn in three years—with most of the decline coming from Indonesia.

China, which blew past the U.S. last year to become the world’s largest national car market, also has surged to the top spot in vehicle production.

Final data released last Friday from the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Assn. show Japan’s output plunged nearly 32% to 7.93 million units in 2009—the first time production fell below 8 million in 33 years. Production in China jumped more than 48% last year to nearly 13.8 million vehicles.

The U.S., which had long been the highest-volume producer until being overtaken by Japan in 2006, built 5.7 million cars and trucks last year to rank third behind China and Japan.

Japan’s automakers have a combined 11 million units of domestic capacity, according to JAMA. But last year’s output was off 40% from 1990’s peak, and exports were half their 1985 high, The Nikkei says. Exports plummeted 46% to 3.6 million in 2009, their first decrease in eight years. Shipments to the U.S. and Asia tumbled 42% and 28%, respectively.

Ford Motor Co. hopes to ink a definitive agreement this month to sell its Volvo Cars unit to China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. The deal, valued at between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, is expected to be completed by May.

Geely already has filed plans with Chinese regulators to build an assembly plant near Beijing, Reuters reports. The planned factory would eventually have the capacity to produce as many as 300,000 vehicles per year, about equal to Volvo’s current capacity. It’s not clear when the new plant would be completed, but China media reports speculate  the first car assembled there will be the Volvo XC60 crossover.

Last week Volvo workers in Sweden sent a delegation to Shanghai to learn more about Geely’s plans. The Chinese company repeatedly has said it will maintain Volvo’s production, product development and corporate headquarters in Sweden.

It is still unclear how Geely plans to finance the acquisition. Reuters says Geely may set up a separate company that would be 51% owned by foreign investors and Geely Holdings.

Sweden’s Autoliv Inc. has agreed to buy most of Delphi Holding LLP’s occupant protection systems business in China and South Korea for an undisclosed price. The units generate annual sales of about $250 million and supply such companies as Chery, Kia, Hyundai and Tata.

Following the purchase, which is expected to close by March 31, Autoliv will have acquired virtually all of Delphi’s occupant protection system units (airbags, seatbelts and steering wheel components) worldwide.

Autoliv announced two deals late last year to buy Delphi’s steering wheel unit in Mexico and its safety systems businesses in Europe and North America. Those units are expected to produce combined sales of about $150 million this year.

Delphi has been selling off non-core businesses since it emerged from a four-year bankruptcy in October.

Autoliv describes itself as the world’s top producer of safety harnesses and airbags. Its sales last year totaled about $4.85 billion, down 20% from 2008. But fourth-quarter sales spiked 10% from the year-ago period, led by strong demand in China and Europe.

As car production and sales soar in India, so too does the market for counterfeit components, warns India’s Automotive Component Manufacturers Assn. ACMA estimates that sales of spurious parts now totals $1.14 billion per year, nearly one-third of the country’s overall annual $3.57 billion replacement parts market.

Bogus components take sales from legitimate manufacturers and reduce tax revenues. Quality also is affected and could lead to safety risks, since counterfeit parts typically involve low-grade materials, short-cut processes and little or no performance testing.

Parts such as brake shoes, lights, filters, clutches and pistons can easily be copied, But ACMA Deputy Director Monika Handa tells AutoBeat ASIA that fake parts typically wear out much faster—in some cases within a few days.

Handa says the market for bogus parts is likely to expand, especially in rural markets and among first-time buyers who are very price-conscious but lack market savvy.

India has adequate laws against counterfeit parts that protect intellectual property, but Handa says enforcement has been spotty. High excise duties also have spurred counterfeiting as a means to reduce costs. Copies of Bosch parts and those of other major brands imported from China have reached nearly a 1:1 ratio, Handa says.

ACMA has been working to improve awareness of the problem. At the Asli-Naqli (genuine and duplicate) pavilion at last month’s auto expo in New Delhi, for example, counterfeit parts were displayed next to real ones to highlight the differences between the two. Company representatives were on hand to detail the variations in the fake part. Handa says there also is a constant effort by the parts manufacturer to improve and change packaging before it is copied.

ACMA is working with authorities to target counterfeit producers. Handa says more than 160 facilities have been raided as a result of the program.

Jiangling Motors Co. has resumed production of Ford Motor Co.’s Transit Classic diesel-powered commercial vans in China. Output at Jiangling’s Nanchang plant was temporarily delayed last week in the wake of Toyota Motor Corp.’s massive recall related to the accelerator pedal assembly supplied by Elkart, Ind.-based CTS Corp., which also makes the pedal for the China-built Transit.

Ford says its joint venture with Jiangling Motors Corp. has built fewer than 1,700 Transit fullsize vans since it began using pedals made by CTS in December. There have been no reported problems of uncontrolled acceleration in the Transit vans.

In affected Toyota vehicles sold in North America, China and Europe, the accelerator pedal mechanism may prematurely wear, causing it to stick and take longer to return to the set position after being released.

DRB-Hicom Bhd, a large car distributor in Malaysia, is establishing a university curriculum dedicated for the automotive industry. Some $2.9 million has been earmarked for a new school: Hicom University College. The program will include post-graduate-level courses for local and international students. Little else about the program has been announced.