Everything you need to know about Detroit's auto show: Rides, reveals and electrics
Henry PayneDetroit — Indoor and outdoor test tracks, 35 brands, a new Ford F-150, even a Jeep kids test track is in the house. After a couple of experimental transition years, the fall Detroit auto show is finding its lane in a new auto exhibition era.
The annual Detroit auto show circus opens at Huntington Place for media days Wednesday and then welcomes the public from Saturday, Sept. 16, to Sunday, Sept. 24. With colorful fall weather outside and polished displays inside on the convention center’s main floor, NAIAS promises to be one of North America’s best shows of the year.
The exhibit boasts the most brands of any show — headlined by Detroit’s own hometown automakers. Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV will each unveil two new vehicles, including America’s best-selling chariot, the Ford F-150, in an event Tuesday night that will take over Hart Plaza.
“Not many shows can put up 35 brands,” said Detroit auto show Executive Director Rod Alberts during a preview of the show floor this week. “We are getting back to the core of what the auto show is.”
This is a show focused on vehicles — without the distractions of giant yellow ducks and dinosaurs at last year’s event. “After the pandemic and the supply chain issues of recent years, this year is a rejuvenated show,” Alberts said. “We’ve made great strides. The show is more robust with more activations and energy all around you.”
Twenty percent of the show floor (an estimated 100,000 square feet) is occupied by NAIAS’s first main-floor electric-vehicle track — the so-called Powering Michigan EV Experience, sponsored by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 58 and the National Electrical Contractors Association.
Like visitors to an auto amusement park, show attendees will have the choice of four indoor rides — plus a test track for kids to ride in toy Jeeps. Stellantis will have a 90,000-square-foot display dominated by (actual) Jeep and Ram activations that look like something out of Disneyland. Attendees will ride along while Ram shows off its tow muscle and Wranglers scale a hill for a bird’s-eye view of the show floor.
Speaking of hills, Ford’s display will feature Bronco Mountain rides. Nearby will be the redesigned F-150, fresh from its Hart Plaza reveal; a matte-wrapped, limited-production Lightning Platinum EV truck and Ranger Raptor pickup first-look. Visitors will also get a first look at the 800-horsepower Mustang GTD supercar, which anchors a Mustang display featuring every member of the seventh-generation pony car's family, including Mustang Mach-E Rally, Mustang Dark Horse, and GT3 and GT4 race cars.
Along the hall’s spine will be stations for different brands to show off their EVs. Government is more involved in the auto industry than ever, and manufacturers are determined to get reticent customers into electrics as regulations push to eliminate gas car production. One of the benefits of electrics is they can cruise indoors free of tailpipe emissions. There will be plenty of EV toys to ride in — GMC Hummer, Mustang Mach-E, VW ID.4 — on a twisty track with a long, fast back straight.
While the electric test track inside will offer only right-hand seat drives, customers can get behind the wheel of Ford EVs outside on a test course that makes partial use of the Detroit Grand Prix route.
Tesla will not be at the show, but organizers managed to get the Austin-based automaker’s full Model S/3/X/Y lineup for the test track. With a flood of EV competitors from Ford to Hyundai to Cadillac ramping up EV production, the brand still accounts for some 60% of EV sales nationwide.
“Every auto show has its own personality, every show has had to change their game plan,” said NAIAS Chairman Thad Szott, president of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association. “Because we are the home of the Detroit Three, we have a different relationship with our automakers. This is a dealer-run show with more access to vehicle inventory because of that special relationship.”
Ford bills its show-opening Hart Plaza event on Tuesday evening as a celebration of America, with pickup trucks, Mustangs and country musicians taking the stage. Grammy-winner Darius Rucker will perform before an exclusive audience of Ford employees.
Beyond the Detroit Three brands, vehicles on display include models from Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus and Volkswagen as part of corporate/regional-supported vehicle displays. Toyota will have a manufacturer-sponsored display front-and-center in the Exhibit Hall with 30 vehicles, including its bZ4X EV, hybrid Prius, and gas-engine models like the new Tacoma pickup and GR Corolla hellion.
“As a dealer association-backed auto show, one of our main goals is to display all the brands that are sold in our region,” Alberts said.
Gone are the big, multimillion-dollar displays of yesteryear — a victim of the social media revolution where brands now introduce vehicles on their own time via digital platforms. That trend has altered every auto show — not just Detroit — so NAIAS has focused on getting butts in seats via activations like the EV Experience.
There will be plenty of eye candy other than EVs. When the kiddies are done taking a ride in toy Jeeps, they’ll drool at the Exotic and Luxury Showcase in the hall’s northeast corner. These treats were once only available to an exclusive Saturday night casino audience ahead of media days. Now they are on view all through the public days, with models from Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Maserati, McLaren, Mercedes, Polestar, Porsche, Rolls-Royce and Volvo.
Even more exotic is a futuristic flying car from California-based Alef Aeronautics.
Other events during the Sept. 13-14 media and technology days include the North American Car Truck and Utility of the Year announcement of the “Best of 2024” nominees (aka semifinalists), Mobility Global Forum, and AutoMobili-D, a look at future mobility platforms.
Friday night, Sept. 15, is all about the Charity Preview, which will command an expensive ticket for a good cause funding children’s charities. Attendees will watch Detroit’s beautiful people and hear the soaring voice of singer Jennifer Hudson. In keeping with the show’s Detroit-branded theme, Shinola — the show’s official timekeeper — will debut its new Canfield Speedway Lap 06 timepiece at the charity event.
“We started a watch factory in Detroit 10 years ago because this city knows how to make things,” Shinola CEO Awenate Cobbina said. “The Detroit auto show celebrates that same grit and know-how.”