This past year has been an interesting one from the automotive perspective, packed with everything from fun car reveals to five million different coronavirus variants killing off fun events all year long. But I want to know what you think 2022 is going to bring.
Personally, I think the traditional auto show as we know it is dead, and we’re finally going to have to accept it in 2022 when yet another season of shows fails to go off without a hitch. I have a feeling automakers are just going to stop signing up until it hits a point where no one can justify hosting a show anymore.
It’s going to start because of COVID caution, especially since we still have no idea how Omicron is truly going to impact the world, but I think it’s just going to become too much of a hassle to spend all that money for large, exorbitant displays when there’s no guarantee it’ll be worth it.
Instead, I think we’re going to transition to smaller, one-make events — something like what Toyota did earlier in 2020 when it hosted its Confidential HQ in Plano, Texas. It invited a bunch of journalists out for product reveals and test drives, but things were localized, Toyota didn’t have to ship all its cars out to a show that didn’t happen, and it was probably way easier to manage from a COVID standpoint.
That’s not exactly the most exciting prediction, but I’m going to stand by it, especially since my 2021 prediction fell totally flat. This one seems more reasonable — which probably means that auto shows will go back to normal in 2022 and I’ll look like a chump.
But I want to know what you fine folks think. Will 2022 be the year electric cars finally take off, or will it be the year they die entirely. Will there be a cool new product launch? Will flying cars finally only be three years away? I want to know.