NEW YORK — The auto industry is being whipsawed by consumer, government and technological trends. Consumers want SUVs that take the kids to school Friday and climb Mt. Rushmore on Saturday. Government wants electric vehicles tomorrow. And Gen Y would just as soon let their phones drive anyway.
Throw all this into a blender and you have the New York International Auto Show.
It’s a showcase for the industry’s latest and greatest ... at last among manufacturers who still think shows are relevant (yet another trend). Doors open to the public April 7-16 and showgoers will find a different Javits Convention Center landscape than just five years ago. And fans of the hometown Detroit auto show might find some familiar trends. Five things of note ...
You don’t have to go inside
Walk along 11th Avenue in the shadow of Hudson Yard’s towering skyscrapers and you’ll know there’s an auto show on before you ever set foot inside. Jeep Wranglers and Grand Cherokees scale a sort of automotive roller-coaster, giving show attendees a ride. Toyota is also on 11th with rides in multiple vehicles.
Hang around Javits on media day and you never know what you might see. With thousands of journalists inside, Ford couldn’t resist setting up shop at Pier 78 on Javits’ Hudson River flank to give rides to media in its sinister-looking, new Mustang Dark Horse coupe — not due in showrooms until this summer.
Heads swiveled as a Ford engineer and I took the winged beast down 11th — its V8 echoing off skyscrapers’ canyon walls. WAAAUURRRGH! New Yorkers know their muscle cars and stopped in their tracks.
The incredible shrinking auto show
Detroit isn’t the only auto show that has changed. Once a sprawling consumer showcase stuffing three exhibition halls, New York’s show is now contained in a single hall on Level 3. Luxury makers — Audi, Mercedes, BMW — have vacated their once huge stages. They’ve been replaced by mainstream brands and yards and yards of carpet.
Indeed, NYIAS looks like a regional car show with cars arranged around a central brand stand. Open spaces would be more noticeable were it not for creative use of space like Toyota’s exhibit in the middle of Level 3 that celebrates its sponsorship of paraplegic athletes.
Showgoers can play basketball, hockey and curling on the Toyota Sports Festival courts. Honda, which once occupied Toyota’s space, has been shoved to the northeast corner of the hall. Even New York’s signature exotic car display has been scaled back with a Lamborghini, Lotus, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Rimac, and others neatly arranged on the carpet.
EV rides
All that extra space means more room for automakers to give rides. And tailpipe-less EVs are the perfect cars to run around inside. Which is a good thing, because dealers are eager to get customers into EVs as governments like New York look to ban internal-combustion engines — the core of their business — over the next decade.
On Level 1, which the Detroit Three once stuffed with truck exhibits, NYIAS has set up a sprawling test track. I jumped into the right-hand seat of a VW ID.4 — now in production in Chattanooga to take advantage of the federal government’s EV tax break — and took a spin with test driver Jackie. She didn’t waste any time snapping my neck back with instant acceleration, reaching 40 mph before a 90-degree turn.
The ID.4 is one of multiple EVs here that customers can choose to drive in including the Chevy Bolt, BMW i4, Kia EV6, and Nissan Ariya.
Earth first
Behind the shiny new EV introductions is an inescapable sense of urgency from corporate executives here to save the earth. Every media introduction emphasizes environmental action.
“The clock is ticking for the planet,” said Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares in a media roundtable of a fundamental industrial shift taking place to rid the world of fossil fuels. “The transformation is a transformation. It’s a transformation, which means some jobs are going to disappear, some others are going to be created.”
But Tavares noted the shift is already impacting jobs as Stellantis, for example, is winding down engine production at a French facility — and preparing to transfer workers to a new battery plant under construction right across the street. Tavares said a 20-year, government-led strategic transition is underway — but the strategy is backward since it will take 20 years to build wind and solar power to fuel electric charging infrastructure. Then 10 years to develop a charging network; then five to transform autos to plug into the remade grid.
“Twenty years for the clean energy, 10 years for infrastructure, five years for (automobiles),” he commented. “So how did we start? By telling carmakers you’re making EVs.”
Where are the EV startups?
The historic opportunity to build EVs in this regulatory climate has spurred a capital gold rush to new startups like Rivian, Fisker, Lordstown, Tesla and more. But none of them are here. Even the low-rent hallways outside of the Exhibit Halls that once featured small performance makers displays are empty.
Into this void has stepped the Hyundai Motor Group and its three brands: Hyundai, Kia and Genesis. While other legacy brands are focusing their EVs on volume segments like compact SUVs (VW ID.4, Toyota bz4X, Nissan Ariya, Cadillac Lyriq) or pickups trucks (Ram 1500 REV, Ford Lightning, Chevy Silverado EV), Kia is blanketing all segments with electrics.
Along with Ram’s first EV, the REV pickup, the Kia EV9 has received the most buzz here as the first three-row SUV from a mainstream automaker. Hyundai also introduced a subcompact Kona EV Wednesday.
The Ioniq 6, a sleek EV sedan, won World Car of the Year, while the Kia EV6 GT — a crossover muscle car — won World Performance Car of the Year. The EV6 and Genesis GV60 compact SUVs were both finalists for North American Car of the Year.
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