GM sharpening knives for Opel, Nissan racing ahead and Aston Martin chills in the Dash

What we're reading this morning about more troubles at Opel, Nissan's healthy earnings and why cars excite people and bicycles don't:

GM seeks cuts at Opel [Wall Street Journal] General Motors will sharpen the axe again for its Opel unit later this month after it expects to report "horrendous" losses, according to an executive who leaked to the Wall Street Journal. The fact that someone at normally tight-lipped GM wanted to talk about earnings ahead of time indicates just how bad the problems are — and how deep GM has to cut to get back to even.

Nissan sees annual profits beating Toyota, Honda [Reuters] After General Motors and Volkswagen, the world's new third-largest automaker is Nissan-Renault, and the Nissan business seems to be on cruise control, with revenues and profits both expected to rise. Nissan has also been the most aggressive of the Japanese automakers about moving production off-shore to avoid a strengthening yen.

Vauxhall to unveil "Rad E" bike in Geneva [Vauxhall] Meanwhile, the British arm of GM's Opel unit plans to unveil a concept electric bicycle at the Geneva Motor Show. Supposedly the 250-watt motor will help the bicyclist travel between — and I am quoting the press release verbatim — "37 and 90 mph," which if true, would be one hell of a bicycle but still a terrible motorcycle.

Aston Martin unveils Zagato V12 [Autocar] Aston Martin finally lifted the curtain on the production version of the gorgeous Zagato V12, designed with the aid of the Italian firm, that's sexier than the One-77 ever managed to be. With plans to build just 150 copies, Aston Martin could probably ask for more than the $645,000 its asking for each one and get it.