DETROIT – Major changes are coming to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
In 2020, the show as we know it is going to look much different after organizers decided to move the date of the show to June.
Cobo Center will still have cars inside for the auto show. It's what's going to happen outside starting June 8, 2020 that really changes the game.
Renderings show the ideas they're tossing around, including ride-and-drives in Campus Martius, off-road tracks in the riverfront, autonomous vehicles on the Cobo roof and live tech demonstrations everywhere you look.
Detroit Auto Dealers Association Chair Doug North said June will become the big event month for Motown.
"Given the Grand Prix is in early June, the show would be in mid-June," North said. "The fireworks -- the whole month of June would be more of an almost Downtown festival, an automotive festival."
The feature event of any auto show is the charity preview. It will stay, but the fashion in which it will stay remains up in the air.
"We're not completely sure what that event is going to look like," North said. "It might be that we don't have to wear a black tie, and I'm not sure that's going to be tank top or Hawaiian shirt, but hopefully we can come up with a theme people will embrace, certainly, in the month of June."
Fortunately for the DADA and Detroit, the downtown area is on the rise and there are many restaurants and other activities.
The concept is "to have someone say, 'Hey, we saw such and such a vehicle at the show and then we went to get a bite and heard someone playing music and then we saw this vehicle in action,' where you bring all the best of this together," North said.
DADA officials believe they know what the auto show will look like in its new form, and that they're only limited by the creativity of the car companies and the suppliers.