Report: L.A. Auto Show Ready to Make Its Move

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Amid ongoing trade show cancellations that now stretch into the next calendar year, the L.A. Auto Show remains stubbornly fixed, apparently still a go for this November.

No one believes this will come to pass. Not with the current coronavirus situation, not with winter (and a feared second wave) approaching, and not without the appearance of a vaccine or some sort of breakthrough therapeutic drug. So it’s not surprising to hear that organizers might punt the event to late spring.

Three sources who spoke to Automotive News say that’s the plan.

While the official calendar still has the L.A. event slated for November 21-29, people with knowledge of the event planning say the show will move forward a half-year, potentially making it a close predecessor to a deferred Detroit show tentatively scheduled for next June. Detroit’s first summertime show, of course, didn’t get off the ground in 2020 on account of the fast-spreading virus.

From Automotive News:

The L.A. event, which had been scheduled to run Nov. 20-29, will now take place May 21-31, 2021, according to three people familiar with the show’s planning.

An announcement could come as early as this week, two of the people said.

The show’s president, Terri Toennies, did not respond to four voice, text and email messages seeking comment.

Should next spring bring with it a vastly changed virus situation, automakers will face quite a timetable of trade events. Cancelled at the last minute this spring, the New York International Auto Show is scheduled to open to the public from April 2-11, with the Detroit show arriving on June 19th. That would make L.A. the cream in a hastily consumed Oreo.

Given that automakers time the public debuts of product to coincide with regularly scheduled trade shows, the three events offer plenty of choice. However, the close timing could leave one or more of them with a meager amount of new reveals.

[Image: Jaguar Land Rover]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

More by Steph Willems

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 4 comments
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
Next