The North American International Auto Show in Detroit, known worldwide as the NAIAS or the Detroit Motor Show, will not be held in September this year as previously planned. According to the organizing committee, it will try to assemble a bigger audience by reverting its schedule to January.
The NAIAS expo had been held in January throughout most of its history, but has lately been suffering from low attendance. The organizers blamed other coinciding events for it, especially the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Eventually, a decision was reached to push the show to September.
After a prolonged pause caused by the Covid pandemic, the NAIAS was held in September 2022 and then in the same month of 2023. It has still failed to attract a sizeable audience, however. Last year, the only noteworthy headlines form it were routine facelift announcements from major automakers (see the gallery and the video).
In his interview with Motor1, NAIAS Executive Director Rod Alberts admitted that the company may have made a mistake by shifting the schedule. As such, the next show will be held in January 2025. He added that the committee had spoken to a large number of partners before reaching this decision.
Still, there is no avoiding the fact that the CES keeps draining audiences from the NAIAS, to the point that a number of automakers choose the former as their main platform for making big announcements. They are also increasingly turning their attention to the Tokyo Auto Salon usually held in early January.
The next NAIAS is now penciled in for January 10, 2025. Whether it succeeds remains to be seen.
