The New York Auto Show, which didn’t happen last year and was delayed till August this year, has been canceled, because of the spike in Covid cases resulting from the emergence of the Delta variant. The show was supposed to begin in just 15 days.
Organizers’ statement, in part:
It is with great disappointment that the upcoming 2021 New York International Automobile Show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center has been cancelled due to the growing incidences of the Covid-19 Delta variant and the increased measures announced recently by State and local officials to stop its spread.
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As custodians of the 121-year-old New York Auto Show, we are committed to providing a safe environment for everyone including attendees, exhibitors, and the thousands of men and women who put the Show together. Over the past few weeks, and especially within the last few days, circumstances have changed making it more difficult to create an event at the high standard that we and our clients expect.
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The Covid pandemic has challenged our City, the country and the entire world, but just like the automobile industry, we know that the New York Auto Show will rebound and be bigger and better than before.
We firmly believe that will be the case when the Show returns to its regular spring schedule in April 2022.
You can expect that various car debuts that were originally scheduled to happen at the New York show will still go on as planned, but virtually, as they have for over a year now. The auto show was supposed to run from August 20 to August 29 at the Javits Center in Hell’s Kitchen, with a press day on August 19.
That timing would have put it right in the middle of implementation of a new New York City policy to require proof of vaccination for those going to events, shows, and dining indoors. That policy is expected to go into force in mid-September, and perhaps had that policy already been in place, the auto show might have gone on. But we’ll never know now. See you in April, hopefully.
DISCUSSION
Auto shows are still a thing?
Somewhat kidding aside, I feel like automakers are doing just fine doing their own catered vehicle launches. These days, “concept” vehicles are just Photoshop renders and the only people who really miss the shows are going to be journalists missing out on free alcohol and swag.
That being said, I got to go to one of the Motor Trend sponsored “international” auto shows in Charleston, WV right before the pandemic. It was the first time I’d been able to go to a show that had new vehicles to ogle and sit in, which was better than most of the old-people-in-old-cars-no-touchy shows I usually go to. I got to sit in a Mercedes-AMG GT, an AMG G63, a Lexus LC500, and a Jeep Gladiator pre-preduction model. Although I wasn’t in the market for any of these vehicles, it was cool to have a place to kick the tires on a bunch of new models at once.