The digital revolution is changing the Detroit auto show, too.<\/p>\n
Once the global auto industry\u2019s unchallenged blockbuster for the new calendar year, the Detroit show faces challenges on multiple fronts: The auto-relevant CES technology show happening now in Las Vegas is siphoning away news makers. Social media is muddling messaging. And restless manufacturers are looking for more exclusive venues.<\/p>\n
Even Martin Luther King Day isn\u2019t helping because the timing of this year\u2019s show calendar is turning that traditionally heavy public traffic day into a press day. But reports of the death of the auto show are greatly exaggerated. Count on the 2018 Detroit-a-palooza to make plenty of noise again.<\/p>\n
In 1989, organizers of the event rebranded it as the North American International Auto Show and broadened its global appeal to become a premier stop for foreign automakers and their domestic rivals. At the turn of the 21st century, the show attracted some 5,000 members of the international news media to witness the introduction of what frequently included more than two dozen new production vehicles and nearly three dozen concept cars.<\/p>\n
This year, despite healthy U.S. sales and media attendance, new production reveals will shrink to around 20 and a handful of concepts. The reasons are many, including an accelerating product cadence that has distributed show reveals to other events in the calendar year, like the Los Angeles and New York shows.<\/p>\n
Some automakers like Jaguar are avoiding the Detroit show altogether. Sure, the elegant Brit-brand debuted its latest, compact E-Pace SUV in Detroit last year \u2014 it just decided to show it alone.\u00a0In Novi. In September.<\/a><\/p>\n The event was part of an international premiere of the Jaguar cub that included a 360-degree barrel-roll in London. Using the internet and social media, the E-Pace owned the news cycle with its singular introduction, away from the noise of an auto show.<\/p>\n Jaguar\u2019s events mirror a trend that includes global reveals like Ford Mustang\u2019s six-city intro in 2013 and the Chevy Corvette introduction in Dubai in November. Says John McElroy, host of Autoline and a long-time industry watcher: \u201cIt\u2019s all about presenting your own message and getting as much media as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n But the biggest competitor to the auto show is CES.<\/p>\n The sprawling, January exhibition in Las Vegas has been an industry gathering place for all things electronic since 1978. The two spectacles \u2014 one a trade show, the other a public auto show \u2014 shared little other than female product-models until this decade.<\/p>\n But as digitally savvy consumers demand more of their cars than legroom and horsepower, manufacturers have introduced more electronics. And they made more of those introductions at CES.<\/p>\n