General Motors of Canada Ltd.is turning each of its 22,000 employees into sales people with a novel marketing plan aimed at pumping up sales and recapturing flagging market share.

The use of hybrid engines is becoming more mainstream, but Ottawa needs to help increase interest in the low-emission technology among consumers, industry officials said yesterday .Several car makers are increasing their promotion of hybrid systems, which draw power from two different energy sources, typically a gasoline or diesel engine combined with an electric motor. Generally, they're seen as a bridge to zero-emission vehicles, largely still at the testing stage, powered by fuel cells.

Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. wants Canadians to get smart.In fact, the auto maker thinks about 800 Canadians will get smart later this year when it begins offering its two-seater micro-compact cars here for the first time -- a move that both broadens Mercedes-Benz's product offering and heightens the growing competition in the small-car market in Canada.

Analyst Gary Gordon of UBS Securities LLC said in a recent report that he recommends investors underweight U.S. auto stocks because they have chronic problems. A small decline in demand for autos would likely result in continued losses at DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler unit and drive General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. ''to the brink of profitability,'' he said. He believes the fundamental problems are lacklustre brands, falling market share, pricing pressures and legacy fixed costs. ''A modest decline in automotive demand would probably expose the companies, which are barely profitable now, to significant losses,'' he said.

To understand how new and redesigned vehicles drive success for auto makers, look no further than Nissan Canada Inc.The company rode a wave of new vehicles developed by its once-destitute parent Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. to post a 7-per-cent sales gain in Canada last year in a declining market. It's aiming for a 10-per-cent leap this year. On the surface, the strategy is simple: Enter new segments and refresh existing vehicles.

Vehicle sales plunged 12 per cent in Canada last month from year-earlier levels, prompting industry officials to blame the sixth successive monthly slide on economic fears and a saturated new vehicle market.

The Canadian Auto Workers union has begun a major push to convince the Ontario and federal governments to provide Ford Motor Co. with the financial help it wants to build a leading-edge flexible assembly plant in Oakville, Ont., later in the decade.