(Reuters) - Pedestrians look at an electronic display board showing the Nikkei average in Tokyo January 31, 2008. Japanese stocks rose almost 2 percent on Thursday, buoyed by short-covering in Toyota Motor Co. and other blue chip exporters, while banks erased nearly all their early losses as subprime fears eased slightly. REUTERS/Kiyoshi Ota (JAPAN)
(Reuters) - A man looks at an electronic display board showing the Nikkei average in Tokyo January 31, 2008. Japanese stocks rose almost 2 percent on Thursday, buoyed by short-covering in Toyota Motor Co. and other blue chip exporters, while banks erased nearly all their early losses as subprime fears eased slightly. REUTERS/Kiyoshi Ota (JAPAN)
(Reuters) - Felix Kramer, founder of CalCars, plugs in his Toyota hybrid car to charge up at his home in Redwood city, California, November 21, 2006. (Kimberly White/Reuters)
(AP) - This photo provided by General Motors Corp. shows a 2009 Hummer H3T pickup. Hummer is entering the pickup market with the H3T, which GM plans to introduce next week at the Chicago Auto Show. Based on the architecture of the Hummer H3, the smaller of the brand's two sport utility vehicles, H3T is bigger than a midsize pickup like the Toyota Tacoma but smaller than a full-size pickup like the Ford F-150. It has a five-passenger crew cab and a separate five-foot-long bed. (AP Photo/General Motors Corp., ho)
(AFP/File) - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday that it had produced almost 9.498 million vehicles in 2007, leapfrogging US rival General Motors to become the world number one in terms of production.(AFP/File/Stan Honda)
(AP) - A Toyota vehicle is displayed at the Japanese automaker's showroom Mega Web in Tokyo Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. Toyota may have fallen short of General Motors in global vehicle sales last year, but it's beaten its U.S. rival in another measure — global vehicle production. In the latest neck-and-neck numbers race between the world's top two automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it had made a record 9,497,754 vehicles worldwide in 2007, up 5.3 percent from the previous year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
(AP) - Japanese cars for export are seen parked before being loaded on freighters at a Yokohama pier near Tokyo Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. Toyota may have fallen short of General Motors in global vehicle sales last year, but it's beaten its U.S. rival in another measure — global vehicle production. In the latest neck-and-neck numbers race between the world's top two automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it had made a record 9,497,754 vehicles worldwide in 2007, up 5.3 percent from the previous year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
(AP) - Japanese cars for export are parked before being loaded on freighters at a Yokohama pier near Tokyo Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. Toyota may have fallen short of General Motors in global vehicle sales last year, but it's beaten its U.S. rival in another measure — global vehicle production. In the latest neck-and-neck numbers race between the world's top two automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it had made a record 9,497,754 vehicles worldwide in 2007, up 5.3 percent from the previous year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
(AP) - Japanese cars for export are parked before being loaded on freighters at a Yokohama pier near Tokyo Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. Toyota may have fallen short of General Motors in global vehicle sales last year, but it's beaten its U.S. rival in another measure — global vehicle production. In the latest neck-and-neck numbers race between the world's top two automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it had made a record 9,497,754 vehicles worldwide in 2007, up 5.3 percent from the previous year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
(AFP/File) - The headquarters of Japan's electronics giant Sony Corp. in Tokyo. Japanese authorities have ordered a little known firm to correct its claim that it had bought controlling stakes in a clutch of corporate giants including Sony and Toyota Motor, officials said Monday.(AFP/File/Kazuhiro Nogi)