Jan. 11--Day one of the North American International Auto Show kicked off Monday in Detroit with a blast of new vehicle news and some high-grade auto awards.
Honda's refreshed Civic Coupe and Volvo's XC90 SUV were named by the NAIAS as 2016's North American Car and North American Truck of the year.
Unwrapped or announced already, as the annual car show opened, were a new pickup trick from Honda, new details on the much-anticipated Chevy Bolt all-electric sedan, a hydrogen fuel-cell concept car from Audi, and a new crossover from Kia.
Honda got plenty of spotlight for the Civic's prestigious award, and for the unveiling of its 2017 Ridgeline. The midsize truck, out of circulation for two years, will return this fall as a more standard design.
The four-door pickup, powered by a 3.5-liter V6 engine, will mark Honda's return to a vibrant and growing U.S. midsize truck market, competing for attention with Chevy's Colorado, GMC's Canyon, Toyota's Tacoma and Nissan's Frontier.
In other truck news, Nissan announced it will add another iteration to its growing Titan truck line. The Warrior is a concept vehicle that could join the other beasts in the Titan menagerie. If it does, it will be the biggest one -- featuring a 5-liter, 8-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine and offering what Nissan called "new extremes with unapologetic, aggressive, athletic styling features that declare the concept's offroad adventure intent."
The award for the Volvo XC90, the auto industry's first seven-seat plug-in hybrid SUV, is a validation. The vehicle was among the first to hit the market after the Swedish company's change of ownership. The company is now under Chinese control, after being sold by Ford Motor Co. in 2010 to the Chinese automaker Geely.
