Automaker Stellantis has pulled out of the Chicago Auto Show, marking a potential blow to the 116-year-old car show that organizers say is the nation’s largest and the end of its popular Camp Jeep test track.
The company said in a statement that it was done as a cost-saving move to “mitigate the impact of a challenging U.S. automotive market.” It will consider participating in future auto shows on a “case-by-case basis” and focus on “opportunities for consumers to experience our vehicles first-hand.”
This means car fans likely won’t see Stellantis brands including Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Alfa Romeo and Fiat at McCormick Place from Feb. 10-19 — unless the show pulls together a last-minute arrangement with local dealerships.
General Motors and Ford said Thursday that they plan to attend the Chicago Auto Show.
Stellantis canceled its appearance at the Chicago Auto Show shortly before the holidays, according to the Chicago Automobile Trade Association, which puts on the yearly show.
The company hasn’t said if it will also miss next year’s show, association spokesman Mark Bilek said.
Chicago is not the only location passed over by Stellantis. It announced in October that it would be pulling out of the massive consumer tech convention CES in Las Vegas, which starts Tuesday, citing the United Auto Workers strike.
Last year, it dropped out of the LA Auto Show in Los Angeles and the Specialty Equipment Market Association convention in Las Vegas because of the UAW strikes, which targeted Stellantis, Ford and GM plants.
When Stellantis announced this week it would not attend next month’s Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto, local dealerships came together to fund stalls, according to Automotive News Canada.
The Chicago Automobile Trade Association is trying to scrape together a similar deal.
“[W]e have been working with local dealers since then to try and craft some sort of participation from the Stellantis brands at the show,” Bilek said in an email.
But nothing has been agreed on.
“We never say never,” he said. “We have a lot of space and can be fairly accommodating all the way until the move-in for the show that starts in early February.”
Stellantis-brand dealers in the Chicago area are disappointed but understand it was a corporate decision based on labor stoppage over the summer, said JC Phelan, owner of Jack Phelan Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Countryside and chairman of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association.
He hopes dealers pull together to host a display, but he admits it’s a long shot.
“There’s not a structure to get that started. We’re not all on an email chain. It’s not something I’m sure we’ll get done in such” a short timeframe, he said.
Phelan expects Stellantis to return to auto shows next year “because the results of the show are too strong to our dealers.” The company’s popular Camp Jeep test track, which features a steep hill, has given more than 600,000 rides to auto show attendees over the years, he said.
Stellantis struggles
Stellantis, formed through the 2021 merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA Peugeot of France, was trimming its business operations around Chicago even before the UAW strike.
The company stopped operations in February 2023 at its Belvidere plant, just east of Rockford, where some 1,350 workers had been making Jeep Cherokees. After some nudging by President Joe Biden, Stellantis said it would reopen the plant and add another 1,000 jobs at an adjacent battery facility.
But Stellantis is still struggling.
The company announced late last year that it will cut production shifts at two U.S. plants in an effort to reduce SUV production to meet emissions standards. The move could possibly lay off up to 3,500 workers, according to Automotive News Canada.
The automaker, in its third-quarter earnings call, said it would continue to cut costs following UAW’s six-week campaign of coordinated strikes. The strikes ended in late October after the union won major salary increases, among other benefits.
Auto show details
This year’s Chicago Auto Show will take place in only one exhibit hall instead of the usual two. But it’s not really a downsize, organizers say.
Instead, the show will occupy more space in the south exhibit hall, which Bilek said “will make for a better experience for attendees as they don’t have to move between two halls.”
Last year’s 10-day show had 300,000 people attend, Bilek said. Show organizers expect to match or exceed that this year. Ticket sales are on pace with last year, he said.
The show opens daily at 10 a.m. Tickets cost $17 for adults and $12 for seniors over 62 and children 12 and under. Children 3 and under are free.
More information can be found at chicagoautoshow.com.
