Some of the hottest new vehicles revealed by automakers lately — including significant new electric vehicles — have mostly remained online. Only a few industry insiders and journalists have been able to see them up close.
That changes this week with the Chicago Auto Show, which will feature highly anticipated vehicles such as the Ford F-150 Lightning, the burly Bronco and the Kia EV6. Ford also will mark global debuts of two interactive displays with road courses for its off-road vehicles and its new electric models.
While smaller auto shows have been returning for months as the pandemic eases, some of the newly revealed models have been absent. Recent shows also have come with restrictions that limited their appeal. Masks, social distancing and reduced automaker participation meant smaller crowds.
The Chicago show is not a complete return to the pre-pandemic era, but it will be close.
For starters, there will be a media preview the day before the show opens to the public. Jeep and Volkswagen will hold press conferences, and vehicle presentations are scheduled by Ford, Kia, Lexus, Nissan, Ram, Toyota and Volkswagen. No splashy vehicle reveals are planned, but just having physical presentations after so many virtual ones is a step forward.
Holding a media day was a late addition, said Dave Sloan, the show’s general manager and president of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association. The special summer version of the event will be smaller than the usual February show, so the traditional media day was going to be axed. But automakers expressed interest in reinstating it.
“Several manufacturers said they still wanted to make news at the show,” Sloan said. “And so we’re going to have a few press conferences and a few product walk-arounds.”
Chicago will give consumers the chance to physically see some recently unveiled new products, including the Ford Maverick, kick tires and talk with product specialists.
The show was originally planned with mandatory mask use and daily attendance limits, but the rapid vaccination campaign during the spring in Illinois has allowed those restrictions to be lifted. Show organizers received word in early June that masks would be required only for unvaccinated attendees, using the honor system, Sloan said.
Prior to the relaxation of the 30,000-per-day attendance cap, tickets were sold in four-hour blocs to thin out potential crowding at the McCormick Place convention center. Sloan said the lifting of those limits could potentially draw more than the now-lifted event cap of 150,000.
The Chicago show bills itself as the biggest consumer auto show in the country but doesn’t give out attendance figures. Ticket sales in the “hundreds of thousands” are a fair estimate, Sloan said.
But the July show will be smaller. It will use half the square footage needed for the regular Chicago show — a half-million square feet instead of 1 million — and run for just five days instead of 10.
“We already knew there would be some manufacturers that would be reticent to do a show, who would be slow to get back in, so it was going to be smaller,” Sloan said. However, most of the usual slate of automakers is participating, even if their displays are smaller than in previous years.
The modified show does include some unique elements given its summer dates. Organizers will use a city street adjacent to the convention center for first-ever events. One will be Ford’s outdoor “Built Wild Bronco Mountain” display with rides in the new Bronco and Bronco Sport. Ford also has an outside event planned that features the Lightning electric pickup and Mach-E electric crossover.
The first four days of the show will have an evening food and beer festival. Vehicles for consumer test drives will be lined along the street and food trucks and brewery stands will be brought in, Sloan said.
“One thing that was very attractive with these dates was we could try different things in a different part of the year that we don’t do at the show in February,” Sloan said.
Nonetheless, for 2022, the show will return to its normal winter timing, regardless of the enthusiasm for the summer version.
“We really believe that February is the best time for the show,” Sloan said. “We need something to get the spring selling season going and the Chicago auto show does that pretty well.”