NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp(7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research)(TM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is working to develop a prototype electric vehicle with Tesla Motors(TSLA.O: Quote, Profile, Research) as it continues work on a battery-powered small car the Japanese automaker plans to launch in 2012, senior executives said on Friday.

“We’re at the stage of working towards a prototype and once that’s completed and we’ve reached that milestone, I’d like to announce more about what we’re working on together,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda told reporters.

NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) President Akio Toyoda said on Friday higher wages among Chinese factory workers would create a new class of consumers, and that the trend therefore had both “good and bad elements.”

“The experience of the past 100 years shows that auto workers become auto consumers also,” Toyoda told a group of U.S.-based reporters. “This has both good and bad elements. A wage increase is not necessarily bad if properly managed.”

TOYOTA CITY, Japan (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp will extend the time it takes to develop its vehicles by an average of four weeks in a bid to ensure quality following a string of high-profile recalls, a top executive said.

“The fast growth of the past decade has been too much in some areas for the company to keep up with,” Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada told a small group of U.S.-based reporters at Toyota headquarters on Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO/DETROIT (Reuters) – Elon Musk, the chief executive and major investor behind Tesla Motors Inc, has sometimes taunted U.S. automakers, painting his fledgling company as everything Detroit would like to be if it could start over: cooler, greener and ensconced in a much better neighborhood.

As part of the roadshow to drum up interest in Tesla’s initial public offering that prices on Monday, Musk showed potential investors a map of the electric carmaker’s San Francisco-area headquarters and the nearby assembly plant it plans to acquire. Marked for easy reference was Tesla’s location next to corporate neighbors like Google Inc and Apple Inc. Nothing beyond the East Bay of San Francisco appeared.

SAN FRANCISCO/DETROIT (Reuters) – Elon Musk, the chief executive and major investor behind Tesla Motors Inc(TSLA.O: Quote, Profile, Research), has sometimes taunted U.S. automakers, painting his fledgling company as everything Detroit would like to be if it could start over: cooler, greener and ensconced in a much better neighbourhood.

As part of the roadshow to drum up interest in Tesla’s initial public offering that prices on Monday, Musk showed potential investors a map of the electric carmaker’s San Francisco-area headquarters and the nearby assembly plant it plans to acquire. Marked for easy reference was Tesla’s location next to corporate neighbors like Google Inc and Apple Inc. Nothing beyond the East Bay of San Francisco appeared.

DETROIT (Reuters) – The new head of the United Auto Workers on Thursday vowed to “pound Toyota” as part of a stepped-up campaign to bring union representation to factories operated by Asian automakers in the United States.

UAW President Bob King vowed to bring protesters, including retirees, to picket outside Toyota dealerships with banners charging that the automaker puts “Profits Before People.”

DETROIT (Reuters) – United Auto Workers delegates will gather in Detroit this week to elect new leaders as the union emerges from the U.S. auto industry’s near-death experience with fewer workers, lower wages and an uncertain set of bargaining chips.

Bob King, 63, a veteran of UAW negotiations with Ford Motor Co who was endorsed as president by UAW leadership last year, faces an unusual and last-minute challenge from a dissident candidate, a sign of the simmering tensions within the battered union.

DETROIT (Reuters) – Major automakers recorded double-digit U.S. sales gains in May from depressed year-earlier levels as industry-wide sales ticked up for a seventh consecutive month with a boost from orders by rental agencies.

The May auto sales results provide one of the earliest snapshots of consumer demand for a month marked by financial market volatility and renewed questions about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery in the second half of the year.

DETROIT (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co <F.N> sees “great options” to improve its balance sheet and return to investment grade credit rating as its financial results continue to strengthen, Chief Executive Alan Mulally said on Friday.

Mulally affirmed forecasts for a “solid profit” in 2010 and said cost savings from using common global platforms, growing market share and improving pricing would deliver greater profits in 2011 and beyond.

DETROIT (Reuters) – Johnson Controls Inc <JCI.N> offered to pay $1.25 billion for most assets of bankrupt auto supplier Visteon Corp <VSTNQ.PK>, a surprise bid that raised the stakes ahead of a key court hearing set for Monday.

Johnson Controls made the cash offer for Visteon’s vehicle interior and auto electronics business in a letter sent May 7 after a round of initial contact in January. It went public with its offer on Friday.