Nissan Motor Corp

Nissan Motor Co., Japan's third-largest automaker, will supply cars for Chrysler to sell in South America and expand the U.S. carmaker's presence outside its home market. The agreement calls for Tokyo-based Nissan to provide Mexican-built versions of the Versa compact car starting in 2009, the companies said in a joint statement Friday. Financial terms and the number of vehicles weren't disclosed.

Nissan Motor Co. said Monday that it would make a new small car designed by Chrysler and that Chrysler would make a full-size pickup truck designed by Nissan. The agreement is part of a growing relationship between Chrysler and the No. 3 Japanese automaker as they try to adapt to markets buffeted by the economic slowdown and rising gasoline prices. Both products will be sold in North America, and the new Chrysler small car will also be sold in Europe and other global markets starting in 2010.

In tough times, Nissan Motor Co. is hoping less is more. On Friday, the Japanese carmaker said it would begin selling a cut-rate version of its Versa sedan in the U.S. for $9,990 -- more than $1,000 less than the cheapest new car currently sold in America. The frills-free Versa -- which is made in Mexico and will be available starting Nov. 18 -- will come without power windows or air conditioning and will be the only new car available in the U.S. for less than $10,000.

The future -- or at least a future -- may finally be in sight for the electric car. Nissan-Renault Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn announced plans at the L.A. Auto Show on Wednesday to begin selling a competitively priced electric car in Oregon in 2010. The vehicle would go "mass market" by 2012, Ghosn vowed. After years of false starts, the bold pronouncement was the clearest sign yet that electric cars may soon go beyond golf carts and $100,000 eco-status symbols.

Nissan Motor Co. began shipping the 2007 Altima hybrid, the nation's newest gasoline-electric vehicle, to dealerships this week and said Tuesday that prices would begin at $25,015. That's well below competing mid-size hybrids, such as Toyota Motor Corp.'s Camry and Honda Motor Co.'s Accord. But the sticker price represents a $4,000 increase over Nissan's high-volume Altima S model with a conventional four-cylinder gasoline engine.

Nissan Motor Co. cut its annual profit forecast to the first decline in seven years and said quarterly earnings fell 23% on higher raw-material costs and a lack of new models. The automaker's net income dropped to 104.4 billion yen ($865 million), or 25.29 yen a share, in its fiscal third quarter that ended Dec. 31. Sales rose 1.8% to 2.34 trillion yen. Nissan, which passed Honda Motor Co.

In a rare move for a major Japanese automaker in the U.S., Nissan Motor Co. said Tuesday that it was offering a cash buyout to employees as it adjusts the product mix at its two Tennessee manufacturing plants. The company said improved manufacturing efficiencies also led it to offer the plan to cut about 300 of 6,200 jobs at the factories. Analysts cautioned against reading the move as a sign of trouble. "This is no big deal," said Ken Elias, a Scottsdale, Ariz.

Nissan Motor Co. said North American Vice Chairman Jim Morton, who oversaw the relocation of the automaker's U.S. headquarters to Tennessee from California, will retire April 1, leaving the position vacant. Morton, 61, will continue as senior advisor for government affairs on a contract basis, Tokyo-based Nissan said. Scott Becker, Nissan's North American vice president of legal affairs, will take Morton's government affairs responsibilities.

Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn has been adding titles to his business card for years. On Friday he subtracted one. As the No. 3 Japanese automaker faces its first profit decline in seven years, the famously hyperactive executive is giving up his post as chairman of Nissan's North American management committee April 1. The change comes as part of a shake-up designed to improve the management structure at Nissan, which has stumbled in several regions, including the all-important U.

The shady used-car salesman's trick is to roll back the odometer to make a car appear newer. Honda Motor Co.'s odometers moved faster for the opposite effect. How's that? "I never noticed anything was amiss," said Agoura Hills resident Dick Hansen, who bought a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid last year and thought he had put 18,000 miles on it -- but may have driven only 17,600.