The 2022 North American International Auto Show in Detroit opened its doors to media and industry professionals this week, with public days starting tomorrow. NAIAS was once the pinnacle of US auto shows, with huge, high-end displays and demonstrations from both local and foreign car manufacturers. But the show began to fizzle out even before the pandemic, and the 2022 show has been hovering around – First Detroit auto show since 2019 – The event was almost unrecognizable.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the NAIAS in 2019 already felt like it was slipping. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce and Bugatti were nowhere to be found at the convention center – their only presence was a private show at a nearby casino. The Porsche had also left the building. The big, detailed revelations became more and more subtle. Vendors and collections previously relegated to the basement were now visible on the main show floor.
In 2018, organizers proposed a solution: starting in 2020, the NAIAS will change its traditional dates in cold January. A more favorable week in Junearound the time IndyCar’s Detroit Grand Prix. The show will have an outdoor component, expanding display opportunities for automakers and dealers and hopefully attracting more people to spend time in downtown Detroit.
Of course, that never happened. In June 2020, the state of Michigan had just emerged from the most stringent phase of a pandemic shutdown. The 2020 show never happened – the event was central Converted for use as a FEMA Coronavirus field hospital – and The 2021 show has also been cancelled Over the covid concerns.
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So, We’re in 2022, the show has now been pushed to September. People are out, pandemic restrictions are (mostly) gone. But the showground was in a more depressed state than before.
Stellantis had a large footprint at the show, displaying products from Ram, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep — but most of the automaker’s space was used for driving demonstrations. Jeep 4x climbing artificial rough and Ram 1500s hauling stuff.
Across the hall was General Motors. The Cadillac had a small, sad display against the unadorned concrete walls. Buick had an equally small presence. Chevy had the largest footprint of all GM brands, but that paled in comparison to pre-pandemic showings.
Ford took up most of the main floor with a special display the new 2024 Mustang. But more than anything else, what stood out the most was the emptiness—the bars of empty walls, the bare space between the machines.
In 2019 and before, not only was the show floor packed with cars and displays, but the media days were a nightmare to navigate. Journalists had to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with the crowd to get a glimpse of any newly discovered car.
The largest crowd at the 2022 show was the line for Secret Service security screening as President Joe Biden walked the show floor. The single biggest news event of the 2022 show the debut of the new seventh generation Ford MustangThe show took place on Hart Plaza after closing its doors for the evening.
Honestly, the third most talked about thing at the Detroit Auto Show is this giant inflatable duck outside of Huntington Place near Jefferson.
There was a time when this place was full of demonstrations. You can lose the battle by carrying a show-floor map to save your bearings. I’ve been going to NAIAS every year since I was five years old. I remember the year Jeep brought aerial dancers dangling from ribbons hanging from the convention center wheel. I remember Cadillac showing off its all-new Northstar engine for the first time – and sitting on an empty show floor late at night watching my dad, then an engineer at Roush, fix the display engine for another launch day. . In 1999, I stood in the world’s longest line to buy a Micro Machine miniature of Volkswagen’s New Beetle miniature.
But it wasn’t this year’s Detroit Auto Show.
Instead, Ken Lingenfelter had a handful of cars from his vast collection on display in the middle of the convention center, a space where the world’s biggest automakers once fought. A large bare floor separated his cars from the Stellantis screen. On the other side was a replica Ghostbusters ambulance Fred Flintstone’s car.
So which automakers have emerged? All Stellantis, Ford, Lincoln, GMToyota and Subaru. I saw only one Aydin Weather on a small screen next to small booths reserved for mobility technology vendors. The Lexus display was somewhere overseas. Most of the participating automakers have revealed their new cars a few days before the show – if they have anything new to reveal.
During the pandemic shutdown, with auto shows canceled, automakers turned to online live streams and then in-person events for new car debuts. Flying a handful of journalists and influencers to an interesting location to watch a new model debut was more cost-effective than tracking down dozens of different auto shows throughout the year — and at a private event, an automaker doesn’t have to. compete with every brand on the market to get eyeballs on the latest model.
Driving home from the 2022 Detroit show, I thought a lot about the future of the NAIAS. What was once the most anticipated show of the year has turned into a dark shadow of itself. Aside from the Mustang (which debuted at a separate Ford event) and President Biden’s visit (which was more of a speed bump for journalists covering the show), there was no excitement or hype. The crowds had mostly left by Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday’s reserve attendance showed just how dismal things had become.
The pandemic has changed many things about life and the organizers of NAIAS cannot be blamed for that. The show’s run from January to June to September was repeatedly interrupted by life’s unexpected changes under the influence of COVID-19. But as we walk away from the 2022 Detroit auto show, I wonder if there’s a future for auto shows at all.
