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DETROIT — Ally Financial Inc.'s net income surged in the third quarter as the lender generated its highest level of auto loan and lease originations in five years.

The Detroit company reported net income of $476 million in the third quarter, a 25 percent increase from last year's third quarter and nearly double the $241 million in net income reported in the second quarter. Revenue rose 5 percent year over year to $1.68 billion.

The latest quarter's results were markedly better for Ally, one of the largest U.S. auto lenders, than in the second quarter, which suffered a greater impact from the coronavirus pandemic.

Still, Ally executives warned investors Friday that while current credit metrics are benefiting the lender, uncertainty remains as the nation moves through the pandemic without a firm plan for further government intervention.

"The U.S. consumer entered 2020 on solid footing and demonstrated a higher degree of resiliency despite significa…

Volkswagen Group heavy-truck unit Traton said Friday it had agreed to raise its takeover bid for Navistar International Corp. to $44.50 per share from $43, closing in on a deal that would extend its reach into North America.

A successful merger would combine the MAN, Scania and Volkswagen trucks brands with Navistar to create a global manufacturer, at a time when the industry is seeking ways to share the costs of developing low emissions technology. Traton currently has no direct access to the North American market, the industry’s largest source of profits, and instead relies on sales in Europe and Latin America.

At $44.50 per share, Traton would pay about $3.7 billion for the shares in Navistar it doesn't already own, valuing the U.S. business as a whole at around $4.4 billion.

"Traton SE and the U.S.-American truck manufacturer Navistar International Corporation, in which Traton already holds a stake of 16.8 percent, have today reached agreement in pri…

DETROIT-- General Motors' Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant in Michigan is getting a new name -- Factory Zero -- marking a commitment to an all-electric, zero-emissions lineup.

The plant will become the automaker's electric-vehicle hub, building the GMC Hummer pickup and Cruise Origin, a self-driving, electric shuttle developed by Cruise, GM's self-driving subsidiary in San Francisco.

The new name is reminiscent of Factory One in Flint, Mich., Gerald Johnson, GM executive vice president of global manufacturing, told reporters and plant workers Friday.

“Roughly 100 years ago, we started [Factory One’s] transformation from horse and buggies to automobiles, powertrains and engines,” he said. “Factory Zero represents that for us today, hopefully for another hundred years of where we’re going.”

GM said last year it would invest $2.2 billion to ready the factory for EV production. The investment is the largest in GM's history, the automaker said. When t…

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. has arranged a new $1.65 billion debt package to help it reorganize while in bankruptcy, sending its shares soaring.

Should the financing package win court approval, a group of the company’s first-lien lenders will provide the money at an initial interest rate of 7.25 percentage points above the London interbank offered rate, the car rental giant said Friday. The group will also collect an undisclosed amount of fees.

Lenders who signed a letter committing to fund the loan include Apollo Global Management, Diameter Capital Partners and Silver Point Capital, according to court documents.

As much as $1 billion of the debt can be used for vehicle acquisition in the U.S. and Canada, while up to $800 million can be used for working capital and general corporate purposes, Hertz said in a statement.

Shares of Hertz closed Friday's trading up 143 percent to $2.50.

The proposed loan is a sign that senior lenders are confid…

Join Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein for a daily podcast series about the coronavirus crisis. He’ll speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about how the virus is impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

McKinsey's Andreas Behrendt discusses the Fourth Industrial Revolution and explains how automakers and suppliers can harness the power of big data to boost efficiency, productivity and profits.

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SEOUL -- LG Chem is in talks with a "couple" of automakers to create joint ventures to produce automotive batteries, CEO Hak Cheol Shin told Reuters on Friday.

LG Chem is already moving ahead with battery joint ventures with GM and Geely and hopes to expand to other automakers, Shin said, without elaborating.

"Our joint ventures with Geely and GM have been already announced, and we have ongoing discussions with a couple of other automakers," he said.

The company currently supplies batteries from its Nanjing, China, factory for Model 3 vehicles built at Tesla's Shanghai plant.

"We have started supplying to Tesla in earnest, and this is the beginning of a good partnership and we hope to expand the partnership," he said.

"We are in talks to expand cooperation with almost all automakers, and Tesla is one of them," he said.

However, Shin added that Tesla is not one of the companies LG Chem is discussing joint ventures with at this point…

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn Technology Group, unveiled plans to expand its nascent automotive business as the Taiwanese electronics giant seeks to offset slowing growth in its core consumer electronics assembly business.

On Friday, it announced its first electric vehicle chassis as well as a software platform aimed at helping EV makers deliver models to the market faster. The company also outlined plans to release a solid-state battery by 2024 that could potentially displace the more commonly used lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles.

Chairman Young Liu, who took over from founder Terry Gou in July 2019, has turned to the emerging automotive, robotics and medical applications sectors to boost profitability amid plateauing growth in smartphone units in recent years. Apple Inc. still accounts for about 50 percent of overall sales of Hon Hai, but the company is seeking to diversify from its role as the assembler of consumer electron…

Daimler's earnings snapped back in the third quarter, with recovering car sales and cost cuts giving the Mercedes-Benz maker the confidence to predict its momentum will last through the end of the year.

Earnings before interest and taxes surged to 3.07 billion euros ($3.6 billion) for the three months ended in September, Daimler said late Thursday. The preliminary operating profit exceeds the company’s result a year ago and far surpasses the 1.61 billion-euro average estimate among analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

“The third quarter shows a very strong performance and provides further proof that we are on the right path to reducing the break-even of our company,” CFO Harald Wilhelm said in a statement. “We expect positive momentum to continue in the fourth quarter.”

Daimler coped with the biggest disruption to the auto industry in decades better than feared, though it did suffer a 1.68 billion-euro ($1.97 billion) operating loss in the second quarter. Wil…

Before taking the helm of Reynolds and Reynolds Co., Bob Brockman was a self-taught computer programmer who started Reynolds' eventual acquiror, Universal Computer Systems Inc., from his Houston living room.

Brockman's initial product for UCS focused on tracking dealership parts inventory.

"I wrote the first parts inventory package in the evenings, and then went out and sold it," Brockman, 79, said in a biography on his personal website. "I actually sold in the daytime, programmed at night, and processed on the weekend."

Brockman, who has rarely granted interviews, on Thursday was indicted in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on 39 counts of tax fraud, money laundering, destruction of evidence and other financial charges. He pleaded not guilty by video conference from Houston.

The longtime software executive holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Florida and started in the industry as a Ford Motor Co. mark…

LOS ANGELES — Mitsubishi released the first full photos of the freshened Eclipse Cross that will be coming to the U.S. in the first quarter of next year as a 2022 model.

While the front end has been mildly updated, changes to the rear are the most notable. The brand removed the horizontal light bar that bisected the rear hatch glass. It impeded visibility and was considered an awkward design element.

"The front end adopts an evolved version of Mitsubishi's signature Dynamic Shield design concept, expressing strength and security," the company said. "The sleek silhouette continues to the rear with a redesigned hatch and rear window, giving a more sophisticated SUV styling and resulting in improved rear visibility."

Mitsubishi, which released images of the right-drive version of the Eclipse Cross on Thursday, showed a teaser photo in September that suggested the rear design would be cleaned up.

Changes to the interior in…

A pilot out of Tampa, Fla., is bringing three automakers together in a unique collaboration to test connected vehicles.

Honda R&D Americas, Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. and Toyota Motor North America will participate in a pilot program run by the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority, the companies announced Thursday.

The authority has worked with the U.S. Department of Transportation since 2015 as a connected-vehicle pilot site. The authority has been conducting its tests in downtown Tampa by adding wireless technology to buses, streetcars and the vehicles of more than 1,000 volunteers. Now, working with automakers, it will deploy vehicles already equipped with connectivity features.

The automakers will interact with one another and existing connected-vehicle pilot participants in their deployment. Supplier Denso will provide the on-board units for all three companies and will develop a "common set of CV apps" for …

General Motors' Cruise unit will be allowed to test autonomous vehicles on public roads in San Francisco without a safety driver, joining Amazon.com Inc.-backed Zoox Inc. and a handful of other self-driving startups.

Cruise is permitted to operate five vehicles without a driver behind the wheel, a step up from approval it received five years ago that required the presence of a person to take control if needed, the California Department of Motor Vehicles said Thursday in a statement.

While some 60 companies have permission to conduct autonomous testing with a safety driver in California, Cruise becomes only the fifth allowed to test a truly driverless mode in the state. Others in that small group include Alphabet Inc. unit Waymo LLC, Nuro Inc., AutoX Technologies and Zoox -- which received its permit last month.

Cruise will be allowed to conduct both daytime and nighttime tests on certain public roads with speed limits no greater than 30 mph and only in f…