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News watch February 2012: today's auto industry news

Welcome to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour Wednesday 29 February 2012• Following on from yesterday's news of a cross-holding between PSA and GM, it now appears that Peugeot Citroen would offer a €1bn rights issue to create cash and strip back jobs as part of its proposed alliance with GM (Automotive News Europe)  • The Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking, a survey of investor performance, suggests that Kia has outperformed all 22 other car makers with a risk-adjusted return of 9.2% in the past five years. Second highest was Hyundai, whose shares rose 4.8% in the same period (Bloomberg)• Fisker has a new chief executive officer, as founder Henrik Fisker moves to executive chairman. The new boss is Tom LaSorda, the former top man at Chrysler pre-bankruptcy (Fisker)Tuesday 28 February 2012• General Motors is in talks to buy a 5% to 7% stake in PSA Peugeot Citroen, according to reports by news agencies Bloomberg and Reuters.

New Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV plug-in hybrid goes on sale. Price from £28,249

The new Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (pictured) goes on sale in the UK The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV arrived at the Paris Motor Show in 2012, and although it’s already available in Europe it’s only now going on sale in the UK. And it does offer a compelling package. Mitsubishi say the Outlander PHEV is the most practical vehicle qualifying for the UK’s £5,000 grant for low emission cars, and instead of charging really silly prices for their new plug-in hybrid Mitsubishi have pitched it so buyers pay no more at entry-level (after the grant) than they would for its diesel equivalent.

Kia GT could spawn Coupe and Estate

Kia GT could spawn 2 door coupe and estate variants The Kia GT Concept from Frankfurt is heading for production in 2013, and it looks like it could be joined by a Coupe and Estate. It’s not just Hyundai who are starting to push in to the luxury and performance territory currently dominated by the Germans, sister company Kia is getting in on the act too, with cars like the very convincing Kia GT we saw at the Frankfurt Motor Show this year. The Kia GT is a four-door swoopy coupe with RWD and a 3.3 litre turbo V6 kicking out 390bhp, 394lb/ft of torque and looking every bit as convincing as anything that could be considered competition.