Insight: what does the future hold for the Detroit motor show?

Mercedes-Benz, for example, chose to launch its CLA at the CES tech event in Las Vegas earlier this month, bidding to reach a wider audience.

“In the last decade, technology has changed the behaviour of manufacturers and consumers,” says event chairman Doug North. “Firms are choosing to launch cars in different ways.”

North’s team has already taken some moves to address the decline, three years ago launching the Automobili-D event that explores the future of motoring. And bolder steps are coming in 2020: the show will move out of the winter date it has occupied since it was first held 112 years ago, switching to June. That will likely lead to a further reduction in new car launches, but the event will have a different brief: expanding into a car-themed festival.

Better weather (Detroit averages 21deg C in June rather than -7dec C in January) will allow the use of a 14-acre outdoor site alongside the Cobo convention centre, enabling live displays, driving demonstrations, concerts and other elements.

North describes the date shift as “another evolution” of the event, comparing it with the show’s shift to become part of the international motor show calendar in 1989.

North says the change will create a better experience for visitors and be more relevant to manufacturers. “They can have moving displays and an indoor stand,” he says. “It gives them opportunities they haven’t had previously.”

The event will be two days shorter and the set-up time will be greatly reduced, making it cheaper for exhibitors.

If the mix of big stands, driving demos and a festival sounds familiar, the organisers have taken inspiration from the Goodwood Festival of Speed, among other events. The Cobo centre is next to Detroit’s waterfront and ever-improving downtown, and North hopes the setting can be just as evocative as Lord March’s estate. “We can give manufacturers options now, from a traditional stand to an outdoor stage by the water or a downtown plaza,” he says.