Effectively completing a deal announced in April, Subaru parent company Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI) on Friday agreed to sell 61 million treasury stocks to Toyota for a price of ¥31.11 billion (approximately $303 million). The new shares increase Toyota's holding in FHI from 9.5% to 16.16%, improving the capital on hand at FHI and Subaru while deepening the ties born in 2005 when Toyota acquired its original stake from General Motors.

Toyota's latest payment is expected to be completed by July 14.

BMW's fight to protect its X5 SUV from being cloned and sold at retail by Chinese manufacturer Shuanghuan has taken a strong step forward. A decision in Munich regional court today banned the sale of the copycat car, vindicating BMW’s long-standing belief that it has a legal right to protect the design of its vehicles from such imitation.

Toyota has announced the development of a next-generation fuel-cell hybrid that can travel more than twice the distance of previous models, representing a large step for the Japanese manufacturer in bringing the technology to production.