Return of Detroit Auto Show offers new experience

As one official put it during a sidebar conversation, the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, MI will not be your grandfather’s show.

“This is a transformed show,” says Karl Zimmermann, VP of the Detroit Automobile Dealers Association. “It's reinvented, reimagined in so many ways.”

Set up is partially complete inside the recently renamed Huntington Place, formerly known as Cobo Hall.

“We've only got three weeks to where we used to have three months to build this set,” says carpenter Carl Allen who is happy to be back working at the auto show again, making its return for the first time since January of 2019.

Set-up for the 2022 edition of the Detroit Auto Show gets underway on September 7, 2022. (Bob Bellacicco/CTV News Windsor)

Zimmerman says this time around gave organizers a chance to adapt to the changing auto industry, telling CTV News Windsor, “One of the things that was identified as we reinvented the show was the need really to reduce cost for the participants and to speed the process with in which we move in and move out.”

He says the original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, were looking for more engagement for customers with their vehicles.

“We are now not only using the 1,000,000 square feet inside the Huntington Place but also the grand prix track to do activations, ride and drives for both electric vehicles and ICE vehicles. The consumer friendly show will extend outdoors to Hart Plaza, Campus Martius Park and area parks," he adds. 

As for other attractions, spokesperson for the Detroit Auto Show Frank Buscemi adds that the show will also boast monster trucks and a 60-foot inflatable rubber duck, joking, “The Jeep culture knows what the yellow duck means.”

The future of mobility will also be on display as auto show fans can see firsthand air mobility vehicles, like hover boards and an amphibious plane, which have never been to the Detroit show.

“Flying vehicles that look like snowmobiles or you're driving a drone in the XTurismo,” says Buscemi. “We've got a gravity flight suit where a guy will have 1,000 horsepower on his arms and look like Ironman.”

Set-up for the 2022 edition of the Detroit Auto Show gets underway on September 7, 2022. (Bob Bellacicco/CTV News Windsor)

At least 30 brands will be on display at the auto show.

“We will have from every brand that sells in volume in this country we'll have their products represented here,” says Zimmerman.

There will not be as many model debuts as in the past but the show will have a collection of vehicles currently in the running for major awards.

“So if you haven't seen a Ford F150 Lightning or you haven't seen the new Jeep XE either there's a lot of vehicles you'll be able to see,” says Buscemi. “Similar to the past when you would go to an auto show but now you can experience several of them.”

The auto show opens to the public on Sept. 17 until Sept. 25.