(No caption)
You'll look better outdoors, anyway.
It's been rumored for months and discussed for years, and now it's more or less official: The North American International Auto Show moves from January to June in 2020, The Detroit News reports.
The show, which has faced the exodus of many European brands in recent years, will rebrand itself as a show for consumers rather than industry and media. The summer date allows more outdoor exhibits and a possible dovetailing with the Detroit Grand Prix that month.
The show, formally presented by the Detroit Auto Dealers Association, will firm up plans by month's end, The News reports:
The dealers association is pressing to meet a self-imposed deadline of July 24 to detail a decision to move the show that already has been made, Max Muncey, a spokesman for the show, told The News last month.
The planned announcement would culminate a months-long assessment that began at the 2018 Detroit auto show as the rumor mill churned, predicting a German exodus from Detroit that has since been confirmed by the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
Sensing the accelerating pace of desertions, show leadership in January sat down in front of a white board and wrote all 12 months on the board — the first real effort to move the show from its annual first-of-the-year spot on the global auto show calendar. Certain months were crossed out immediately: New York owns April; Los Angeles claims November; and Europe's Frankfurt-Paris axis controls September.
Ford Motor Co. is pushing for the reimagined show to model itself on the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the United Kingdom, the paper reports.