Chrysler LLC said Friday it is preparing to reveal some of its future plans to its dealers next week, and one dealer said they’ll get a look at the next-generation electric vehicles the automaker is developing.

Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealers will get “insight into our business strategies” Tuesday via videoconference at about 100 movie theaters across the U.S., Chrysler spokesman Stuart Schorr said.

St. John’s, NL. – Chrysler LLC Design Vice President, Ralph Gilles will drive a 2009 specially-prepared Dodge Challenger SRT8, alongside co-driver Karen Wagner, in Canada’s toughest and longest motor sports event: the third running of the Targa Newfoundland.

German stocks declined for a third day as a U.S. government report signaled the housing slump in the world’s largest economy is deepening and a rebound in oil prices weighed on consumer companies.

ThyssenKrupp AG sank to a two-year low, leading a drop in steelmakers after rival ArcelorMittal predicted “softness” in the market in the fourth quarter. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Daimler AG, the world’s biggest luxury carmakers, fell for a third day as crude climbed in New York. Deutsche Bank AG and Allianz SE led financial shares lower as the bailout of American International Group Inc. failed to ease concern that credit losses will subside.

Some institutional investors in German carmaker Daimler (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) favour a sale of the company’s truck business but would prefer the company wait to make such a move, German daily Handelsblatt reported.

“In the medium-term we see a sale of the truck unit as a positive as the truck business is very cyclical and there are only limited synergies available between the units,” DWS fund manager Stefan Bauknecht told the paper in a preview of a story to be published on Tuesday.

Chrysler LLC celebrated today the manufacturing launch of the all-new 2009 Dodge Ram at the Warren (Michigan) Truck Assembly Plant with an event involving approximately 1,000 attendees, including Jim Press, Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman and President; Frank Ewasyshyn, Executive Vice President - Manufacturing; Governor Jennifer Granholm for the State of Michigan; General Holiefield, UAW Vice President and Director, Chrysler Department; as well as Company employees and local dignitaries.

The Jeep brand must not be devalued by less-rugged vehicles that don’t live up to Jeep’s off-road image, Jim Press, Chrysler LLC vice-chairman and president, told a roomful of auto writers yesterday.

“We need to keep it a genuine Jeep image, we can’t dilute it by trying to sell out the volume of the brand on ‘faux’ Jeeps. We want to return to our roots and have trail-rated authentic Jeeps that have value,” Mr. Press said during a speech here to members of the Automobile Press Association.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Chrysler LLC has drawn interest from international and North American parties for the possible sale of its high-performance Dodge Viper sports car line, Vice Chairman and President Jim Press told reporters on Wednesday.

Chrysler in late August announced it was exploring the sale of the Viper sports car business as part of its effort to generate cash and ride out the deepening U.S. auto industry downturn. The Viper is a low-volume V10-powered sports car first produced in 1992.

The cost of two new Duke Energy Carolinas’ plants approved in June by state regulators could reach a total of $1.36 billion, according to newly released cost estimates.

The price tag for the Buck and Dan River gas-fired plants, estimated at up to $680 million apiece, indicates power-plant construction costs are continuing to rise, as Duke has warned. Until now, Duke had not released an estimate of the cost of the plants. But general industry figures from last year, based on earlier construction of combined-cycle plants like Buck and Dan River, had pegged costs closer to $480 million.

BMW AG and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz Cars unit both posted rising sales for their compact brands in August, though their core larger cars experienced lackluster demand.

The consumer shift toward smaller cars, which are usually less profitable than large vehicles, comes amid sluggish demand in major markets such as the U.S. and Western Europe and a gloomy economic outlook, which are increasingly clouding the perspectives for global car makers.

German carmaker Daimler is joining forces with RWE, one of the country’s largest energy providers, to create a network of electric cars and charging stations in Berlin.

A select group of Berlin motorists will get subsidized electric cars as part of an experiment launched Friday, Sept 5 by Daimler and leading German energy company, RWE.