Once upon a time in the automotive world, the new year started with a focus on Detroit for the latest in new cars and trends. The North American International Show was a staple of the auto show circuit in January, and after a few years of floundering in late summer, it looks like a dose of winter is back on the table starting next year.
Reports are surfacing that organizers will move the show back to its original timeslot for 2025, which was typically mid-January. Fox2 Detroit cites “sources” saying it’s happening, but we’ve yet to see an official announcement from the folks behind the event. We’ve reached out to the organizers in hopes of getting more information but have yet to hear back. We will of course jump in with an update once something official becomes available.
If the show does move back to January for 2025, what about 2024? That’s one of the questions we asked organizers, though Fox2 states the show will still take place in mid-September. That would leave just three months of separation between them, which frankly, we struggle to see happening.
It’s possible a smaller 2024 event could take place, not unlike the Motor Bella event held in September 2021. Having been canceled a second time due to the COVID pandemic, Motor Bella was held not in Detroit but at the M-1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan. It was an entirely outdoor event that saw little automaker participation.
For that matter, the full-blown 2022 and 2023 shows in Detroit didn’t garner much interest from automakers, either. Whereas pre-pandemic shows often had all kinds of concept and new-vehicle debuts, the big news over the course of both years was the seventh-generation Mustang for 2022 and a handful of mid-cycle facelifts this year.
Moving back to January could pose another problem, however. CES in Las Vegas has become a popular destination for automakers to hold debuts, especially when it involves some measure of technological advancement. It’s believed the shift to September was done to help offset some of this, but that timeslot also conflicts with IAA Munich, the big show in Germany held later in the month.
