Mercedes-Benz Confirms It Will Skip Detroit Auto Show in 2019
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
1) Don't hold it in the dead of winter, and instead move it to a time when it's warm out
2) Move out of the Cobo Center. Belle Isle could use a defining event, so perhaps they could hold it there.
In terms of 2), what's wrong with the Cobo center? Being downtown is nice for walking around etc after.
I can certainly understand for visitors from around the country why it'd be a pain.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/31/suppressed-rigged...
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/wildlife-watch-l...
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/30/vw-suspends...
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42876336
>The exhaust fume tests were carried out by EUGT, a now disbanded body that had been funded by VW as well as rivals Daimler, which owns Mercedes Benz, and BMW.
>Last week the New York Times reported that EUGT had exposed 10 monkeys to fumes - in an air-tight chamber - from several cars, including a diesel VW Beetle, at a lab in Albuquerque.
>In his first public comments on the test, Mr Mueller said: "The methods used by EUGT in the United States were wrong, they were unethical and repulsive. I am sorry that Volkswagen was involved in the matter as one of the sponsors of EUGT."
>Germany's Stuttgarter Zeitung and SWR radio reported that 19 men and six women had inhaled diesel fumes in another EUGT experiment.
VW admits the "optics" of gassing monkeys and humans with diesel exhaust doesn't look quite as good as the "optics" of Hitler delightfully grinning and endorsing their product:
Regarding the human tests, as scandalous at it sounds on first glance, the SWR & ARD (government funded news channels similar to the BBC) also reported that it apparently isn't unusual to do this kind of human testing. The subjects were exposed to one specific kind of gas, and the dose, according to their correspondent, was less than what someone living at a busy street consumes regularly.
He mentioned that even Greenpeace "knows of these studies", referring to them in one of their papers.., whatever that means exactly.. He also states that the scientists were openly communicating that they were funded by the car manufacturers.
https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/bw/neben-affen-auch-menschenve... (google translate should do a good job if you don't understand German..)
https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-7331-the_exhaust_emissions_scand...
I've seen many concept cars that looked "interesting" but rarely have I ever wanted one as much as this.
https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/vehicles/the-...
https://www.google.com/search?q=mercedes+b+class
And by the time it will be in the showrooms it will probably look even more like it.
(I'd think the company would not release exact low figures)
Other manufacturers do similar things.
Saw a matte black one in San Mateo recently, OMG so gorgeous.
> Global sales since mid-2014 totaled more than 10,000 BMW i8s by early November 2016, making the i8 the world's top selling plug-in electrified sports car. The top selling markets are the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.
Mercedes have their own world whether it is F1 or those AMG road cars, they have something for everyone that wants luxury performance. There is no need to have a few Chevy and Ford efforts in this world of theirs, they are not communicating their brand to their customers with consumer comparisons.
Furthermore, the domestic U.S. manufacturers and their international brands (e.g. former 'Vauxhall') are making region specific cars, the German marques generally offer 'world' cars that are the same everywhere to some extent. This year their G-Wagen was something they could take to Detroit, in most years, for most of their products, I am sure Mercedes think of doing the launch in their home market for a global audience. They can fly out all the influencers and journalists they need to Germany, put them up in nice hotels, let them do autobahn speeds and get all the reviews they need.
So it was strange to me that the Detroit Auto Show came and went I was blow away that GM (or Chrysler or Ford) didn't announce any new EVs or even promote their existing EVs there -- despite GM having stated recently they intend on launching at least a dozen new plugins before 2020. All the big 3 showed at the Detroit show were tacky muscle ICE cars and big boring trucks.
I imagine they will announce those cars or at least some concepts this spring, instead, at a different auto show. Which is a pretty sad statement about the Detroit show that the Detroit manufacturers don't even take it seriously as a venue for their future products.
There was a time when going to tradeshows was a must to stay up-to-date, nowadays it is mostly a waste of time.
For actual information, yes, I agree. For trying out new stuff directly in a short amount of time, trade shows are pretty effective. Depends a lot on the product category.
This kind of exposure just wouldn't happen in the social media age, where everybody is trying bold, non-scalable antics to get attention, but it might work at a tradeshow--if they still exist.
Isn’t this compensated for by them having fewer user serviceable or diagnosable parts requiring a trip to the dealer for any maintenance? I don’t know, just curious
They can just send a flyer that says "blah blah not electric blah blah".
Done and done.
Really though, I'd take about any excuse to go there because Detroit style pizza is amazing. If you haven't had it, I highly recommend it.
But to be more on topic, I think it's really interesting that tech and cars seems to be converging enough that CES is becoming more appealing than the Detroit Auto Show. With Ford planning on cutting a large portion of their line in the near future, it'll be really interesting to watch how this market continues to change over the next decade or so.