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DETROIT — GMC has started building the SUV version of the Hummer EV and the third-generation Canyon midsize pickup.

Production of the 2024 Hummer EV SUV began Monday at General Motors' Factory Zero plant in Detroit, officials said. The 2023 Canyon entered production last week at Wentzville Assembly in Missouri. Deliveries of both vehicles will begin in the next two months.

Three of four Canyon trims are in production — Denali, AT4 and Elevation — and the AT4X will follow, Duncan Aldred, vice president of global Buick and GMC, told reporters Monday. The redesigned pickup is taller and wider across all trim levels.

Aldred said GMC has received 90,000 reservations for the Hummer SUV and pickup combined, and it has temporarily stopped taking additional reservations so it can work on fulfilling existing demand through 2023 and 2024.

Sales of the Edition 1 Hummer pickup, priced at more than $110,000, began in December 2021. Less-expensive trims initiall…

General Motors' defense arm and American Rheinmetall Vehicles said on Monday that they have won a contract for the first phase of the U.S. Army's Common Tactical Truck Program.

The multi-phased program aims to replace the army's family of heavy tactical trucks with the production of up to 40,000 trucks valued at up to $14 billion.

Under the contract, the companies will provide their HX3 Common Tactical Truck, which will support advanced driver assistance systems and are enabled for autonomous vehicle operation.

NEW YORK- U.S. lender Citizens Financial Group cut back on auto lending last year and plans to further reduce its exposure to the segment as it becomes cautious on certain businesses as it factors in risk of a recession, its chief executive officer said in a interview.

Moody's Investors Service late last year cut the outlook for U.S. auto financing arms to negative, citing likelihood of higher delinquency and provisioning.

Citizens has reduced its auto loan portfolio to about $10 billion as of now from a peak of $14.5 billion in December 2021, Bruce Van Saun recently told Reuters.

"We basically made a decision to move that portfolio down materially over time," Van Saun said.

"Spreads are tight, so you're not making a good return on that capital," he said, adding that there are limited cross-selling opportunities.

Van Saun said it will be brought down to $5 billion to $6 billion by 2024.

Citizens would like to grow its lending busines…

Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Cox Automotive, talks about the economic headwinds ahead in 2023. Renault and Nissan agree on a framework to rebalance their alliance. And the EV price wars are on.

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PARIS --   Renault and Nissan are rebalancing their troubled alliance in what could be a major step in reviving it. But for the French automaker the benefits of the revamp are for now unclear and potentially quite limited, three industry sources said.

The automakers on Monday announced a deal that will see Renault reduce its stake in Nissan to 15 percent from about 43 percent.

For Nissan, the advantages are clear: the Japanese carmaker gets more ability to do what it wants, and it is no longer in an alliance of unequal partners because capital ownership is rebalanced. However, its stock could be weighed down as the bulk of Renault's stake is sold off. The stake is worth 3.8 billion euros ($4.1 billion) and will be moved to a trust.

The deal also sees Nissan commit to invest in Renault's flagship Ampere electric vehicle unit, which was the French automaker's key goal.

But Nissan's participation in Ampere is fairly conditional, joint projects …

Less than three years after being booted from California for violating the state's franchise laws, Volvo Cars is reviving a vehicle subscription program in a key U.S. market.

The latest program, slated to launch next month, ends a four-year battle between Volvo and its California dealers to introduce the service that now bundles vehicle use, road hazard coverage, maintenance and other services into a monthly payment.

Care by Volvo offers a 2-year term, but subscribers can change vehicles or cancel the subscription without penalty after five months.

"Giving customers the freedom to move in a personal, sustainable, and safe way is our mission," Volvo Car USA outgoing CEO Anders Gustafsson told Automotive News. "Working with our retailer partners to offer the flexibility to do so is one way we are fulfilling our mission."

Launched in 2017, Care By Volvo was a key initiative by former CEO Hakan Samuelsson. Volvo views the …

TOKYO -- Toyota sold 10.5 million vehicles in 2022, it said, defending its title as the world's top-selling automaker for a third straight year.

Global sales for the group, including truck unit Hino Motors and small-car maker Daihatsu, inched down 0.1 percent as record overseas sales of 8.6 million vehicles helped offset a 9.6 percent dip in its home market to 1.9 million, Toyota said in a statement.

Second-ranked rival Volkswagen Group earlier this month reported its lowest sales in over a decade, of 8.3 million vehicles, as COVID-19 lockdowns in China and the war in Ukraine upended supply chains.

While some chip-related supply constraints remained for Toyota as well, the automaker said strong demand in Asia and an increase in the production capacity and optimization in Asia and North America helped it boost global production by 5 percent in 2022.

Toyota in November revised its production forecast for the current financial year through the end of…

TOKYO – Renault Group and Nissan have agreed on a basic framework for rebalancing their decades-old alliance in which Renault will reduce its controlling stake in Nissan to 15 percent from 43 percent, while Nissan will take a share in a new electric vehicle spinoff from Renault.

In joint statements on Monday, Nissan and Renault said the proposal was still subject to approval by their boards and that a formal announcement will come "immediately" after approval.

People familiar with the long-running talks, which began early last year, said the final structure of the deal was expected to go before the boards for review and approval as early as this week.

An announcement could happen as early as Feb. 6. 

"The ambition is to strengthen the ties of the Alliance and maximize value creation for all stakeholders," the companies said.

Under the proposal, Renault will reduce its 43 percent stake in Nissan to 15 percent, matching the 15 percent s…

TATESHINA, Japan — When cruising along at 40 mph on a sheet of super-slick ice, it pays to have an ultraresponsive vehicle stability system that won't skate you right off the road.

Nissan's new e-4orce all-wheel-drive technology, offered in the new Ariya electric crossover, keeps the driver in control, even in situations like this, thanks to its sophisticated software and motor setup.

On a recent test of the system on a frozen lake, high in the snow-draped mountains of central Japan, an e-4orce-equipped Ariya sprung quickly off the start with zero slippage, braked with ease in an unwavering beeline and proved nearly impossible to fishtail on an icy skid pad.

The all-electric awd system debuted last summer and is so far deployed in only two nameplates — the Ariya and the Japan-market X-Trail. But expect to see more of it as Nissan Motor Co. positions e-4orce as one of the killer apps in its coming wave of electrified vehicles.

Nissan Motor Co., citing high battery material costs, warned dealers on Sunday that U.S. supplies of the Ariya crossover, a flagship electric vehicle, will be limited this year.

The Japanese automaker, during a make meeting at NADA, also announced plans for a wave of new EV and gasoline models it hopes will boost U.S. market share to more than 6 percent in fiscal 2023 from 5 percent last year. Nissan expects a 19 percent increase in production in 2023 vs. 2022.

The Ariya was slated to launch in mid-2021, but COVID-related chip shortages delayed it. U.S. deliveries began late last year.

The new halo model is critical to Nissan's effort to reclaim its position in a segment it pioneered with the launch of the electric Leaf hatchback more than a decade ago.

Availability and affordability of the Ariya were on dealers' minds at the meeting Sunday, with many of the roughly 200 retailers in attendance wanting to know why they aren't receiving more units…

Mitsubishi Motors dealers are expecting better vehicle supply this year from the automaker amid strong demand. They're also getting new vehicle trims for 2023, but no new models.

Mitsubishi Motors North America had its make meeting Sunday at the 2023 NADA Show in Dallas.

"What we heard today was a very positive plan for us to keep market share and grow market share," said Richard Herod III, chairman of the Mitsubishi National Advisory Board.

"What I see is distribution of those vehicles to be greater this year than last year and a stabilization of our inventory," said Herod, managing partner at White Bear Mitsubishi in White Bear Lake, Minn.

The automaker's U.S. sales last year slipped 16 percent to 85,810, leaving dealers with more customers than cars.

"Dealers are still very hungry for product," Herod said. "We finally are starting to have a good supply of the Outlander on the ground. Dealers are selling every single Mirage, Outlander S…

Hyundai and its dealers celebrated major market share gains in 2022 and discussed the company's next big moves at the NADA make meeting on Sunday.

The brand ended the year with 5.2 percent market share, up from 4.9 percent at the end of last year, according to data from Motor Intelligence.

Kevin Reilly, chairman of the Hyundai National Dealer Council and owner of Alexandria Hyundai in Alexandria, Va., said its success is due in part to Hyundai's investment in its product lineup.

The Korean automaker's early push into the electric vehicle market with the Ioniq 5 help capture a large chunk of EV shoppers. Its other "eco-friendly" vehicles –the Kona EV and electrified variants of the Tucson and Santa Fe crossovers as well as Sonata and Elantra sedans – also have enjoyed strong sales.

"Everybody's very excited. There was a lot of applause there in terms of the market share gains and the profitability that we've been able to achieve as well," Reilly …