Detroit Auto Show organizers said 275,000 people attended over 11 days and expressed confidence that a move back to the event’s original January time slot was the right call.
Organizers said that the attendance figure makes Detroit “one of the largest” auto shows in the United States. But it is well below the show’s heyday of attracting 700,000 to 800,000 attendees prior to the pandemic.
The event this year had an estimated economic impact of $370 million, according to David Sowerby, Ancora managing director and portfolio manager. The Charity Preview, meanwhile, garnered 7,000 attendees who raised $1.7 million for six children’s charities.
“Bringing the Detroit Auto Show back to January felt like coming home; there was a sense of familiarity and community, of being right where we belong,” Detroit Auto Show Executive Director Sam Klemet said in a statement.
The last January show was in 2019. The event was then derailed by the pandemic, returning for a Motor Bella outdoor version at Pontiac’s M1 Concourse in 2021, and a September iteration for 2022 and 2023, before getting back to its winter roots this year. The thinking was September interfered too much with school schedules and the opening of football season.
In 2019, more than 774,000 people visited the show, though the Detroit Auto Dealers Association hasn’t shared attendance figures for the past few years. In 2022, organizers had said they were confident they beat their projections of 300,000 to 500,000 attendees. Klemet said the 2025 show was the “strongest attendance since before the pandemic,” noting that numbers weren’t released in 2022 or 2023.
The January show had 34 brands on hand, four indoor tracks, and almost 500 vehicles. It didn’t have the big vehicle reveals of past events or massive media attention from around the world, however. Organizers said almost 2,000 media members attended, from 33 states and 15 countries, and the show attracted a number of influential visitors, from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to members of Congress.
“The show gave consumers the opportunity to ‘shop’ their next new vehicle from a sea of brands and hundreds of cars and trucks all under one roof,” said the show’s chairman, Karl Zimmermann, in a statement. “In addition, the four tracks provided over 100,000 rides to prospective buyers.”
@lramseth