The last time Detroit held an car show was in January 2019. At that time, a decision had already been made to move the event to June for 2020. When the novel coronavirus hit the planet in March of that year, that was the end of that.
The pandemic kiboshed the show in 2021 as well. The coming 2022 Detroit Auto Show, or NAIAS, for North American International Auto Show, will thus the first to be held in three and a half years when it gets underway in mid-September. There was a gathering of sorts last year, called Motor Bella, but not an actual show with cars and presentations and large crowds.
Up to now, we have confirmation that Chevrolet will be making a presentation and we’ll be on hand for that. Ditto for Ford, which is presenting the next-generation Mustang in what should make THE big splash of the show. Organizers have also confirmed that Jeep and Chrysler will be presenting something. Overall, though, it will be much leaner than in the past.
For the moment, there are a lot of no-shows. Still, the traditional media day has 16 separate events on its schedule, so we're still going to be busy on site.
NAIAS officials say there may be other additions to the schedule.
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Nevertheless, this is the smallest participation in terms of automakers and since the Detroit Auto Show became international in 1989. In its heyday, organizers claimed to have as many as 70 separate product unveilings during an event.
That's unlikely to happen again; automakers can take advantage of the power of the Internet to make presentations throughout the year. For example, at the recently concluded Monterey Auto Week in California, 20 concepts were premiered.
And that's without counting the exploding costs for manufacturers. Being at a show means spending millions of dollars. Nevertheless, trade shows are surely here to stay, because there are more stakeholders than just the media and carmakers – there are actual consumers, those who attend the events.
We certainly look forward to covering the exhibition floor at this year's show from one end to the other and back. Stay tuned, because starting on September 13 we’ll have the info coming out of the 2022 Detroit Auto Show.