Motor Bella instead of NAIAS 2021: outdoors

The NAIAS, better known to many under the unofficial name of the Detroit Motorshow, has never been a public show. Detroit was too shabby for that and the deadline in the freezing winter was too bad. But the beginning of the year was a good time to present the supposedly good news of the past season and to give an outlook on the coming year. Audi, Volkswagen, BMW or Daimler – people like to bang on the drum here and, in the empty time at the beginning of January, reached halfway around the world with automotive messages. The location in Detroit, in the heart of the American auto world, was perfectly chosen because the headquarters of the Big Three Ford, General Motors and Chrysler were only a few miles apart in Detroit or in the surrounding area (Auburn Hills and Dearborn). When the American manufacturers weakened more than ever, in the new millennium the European car manufacturers gladly stepped in and made the fair in the unadorned Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit a media spectacle with new models, impressive fair appearances and colorful stars that put the fair in the right light moved.

Hardly anyone wants to know about it today and the Detroit Motor Show as it was once known is dead – for the time being for this year. In itself, the NAIAS 2020 should be relocated to the warmer summer months for the first time, but the corona pandemic thwarted the already quite ambitious plans. Instead of NAIAS or the Detroit Motorshow, September makes everything new. With Motor Bella, the name sounds promising and melodic at the same time, but the event is no longer a trade fair as it was once known. Motor Bella no longer takes place in downtown Detroit but a good half hour outside in Pontiac. The American auto show is set to rise again where at NAIAS only the car manufacturers’ company planes landed because of a simplified entry. It can be doubted that this will work. The venue is the M1 Concourse / Key Bank Track, a 352,000 square meter event area and a 1.5 mile long race track in the northwest of the Detroit Metro area until September 26th. More than 300 vehicles from the prospective 35 brands are presented here. Aside from the refreshed Ford Expedition, there isn’t much new to see. “Motor Bella is a next-generation mobility event that combines big, exciting revelations like Ford’s with interactive, fun on-track and off-road activities to bring a new and fun show experience for the public, industry and the media,” said Rod Alberts, Executive Director of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association.

“The pandemic has changed our society and our world in ways that we could not have imagined before and we should all be looking for new and highly creative ways,” continues Rod Alberts, “this new event captures this creative spirit. It will offer new mobility experiences and increasingly innovative approaches to develop the industry and its products. ” The racetrack and the appropriate atmosphere, where the vehicles will dynamically show their potential, should provide excitement. The participation concept can definitely be compared with that of the International Motor Show, which took place in Munich for the first time until two weeks ago. Most manufacturers did not have any big news in their luggage on the Isar and at the exhibition grounds in Munich-Riem there were mostly dead pants. But in Munich city center it was very different, because here the IAA actually reinvented itself with its hands-on concept. The fair booths were visited by the Munich residents from morning to evening without any admission. In Pontiac everything is much more down-to-earth, while the small circuit of the M1 Concourse gives visitors the opportunity to test the current portfolio of the US manufacturers for themselves. So-called experience options are available, for example, from Jeep, Dodge or Ford.

Motor Bella 2021 also relies on your own experience, because there is no big news to report. Foreign manufacturers no longer have the event on their calendar to speak of, and so the whole thing looks like a local event that will no longer experience any media significance. And even as a sales fair, the event in Pontiac is unlikely to be of any use, because if a sales fair is in the USA, then it’s the motor shows in Chicago and New York, whose medium-term future is also in the American stars. And the West Coast event in November, the Los Angeles Auto Show, hasn’t been the best for years either. It was not least borne by the European manufacturers, who are now also concentrating on other formats. There is hardly any space left for trade fairs – not even in the number two automotive country, the USA.