CES and NAIAS: Clash of the Titans

At the 2018 CES, among the automotive-related products shown were The Kia Niro EV concept. (Look closely at the message on the center of the grille.) Although this is but a concept, Kia will introduce 16 new advanced powertrain vehicles by 2025, including a range of new hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.

Gary S. Vasilash
Blog Post: 1/29/2018

Editor-in-Chief, Automotive Design & Production

At the 2018 CES, among the automotive-related products shown were

‘Boundless for all’: Kia presents vision for future mobility at CES 2018

The Kia Niro EV concept. (Look closely at the message on the center of the grille.) Although this is but a concept, Kia will introduce 16 new advanced powertrain vehicles by 2025, including a range of new hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. It has a fuel-cell electric vehicle planned for 2020.

Nexo

Speaking of fuel-cell vehicles, Hyundai brought the NEXO to CES, which it will be making available in select markets early this year. And the week before CES Hyundai announced that it had entered into an agreement with Aurora to bring Level 4 self-driving vehicles to market by 2021.

byton

A new company on the scene, Byton, revealed its EV crossover at CES, as well.

ePalette

Then Toyota announced the e-Palette concept vehicle, a fully automated battery electric vehicle that will deploy Toyota’s proprietary Mobility Services Platform (MSPF). What’s more, it announced the “e-Palette Alliance,” an organization that will help leverage this technology, an alliance including Amazon, DiDi, Pizza Hut and Uber.

And there was an array of leading suppliers—Aptiv, Bosch, Continental and ZF, among them—that were at CES promoting electric and/or autonomous technologies.

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Prototyping for automotive lightweighting

The following week the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) was held in Detroit.

And arguably the three biggest vehicles to be debuted at that show were

The all-new 2019 LT Trailboss (new trim for 2019) adds off-road equipment to the LT, including a 2-inch suspension lift and the Z71 Off Road Package, including locking rear differential, skid plates, Rancho shocks, 18-inch wheels and Goodyear Duratrac off-road tires.

The 2019 Chevy Silverado

2019 Ram 1500 Rebel

The 2019 Dodge Ram 1500

2019 Ford Ranger

The 2019 Ford Ranger

Yes, there were introductions of things that weren’t pickup trucks at NAIAS.

Jetta

Like the production 2019 VW Jetta

INFINITI Q Inspiration Concept

And the conceptual Infiniti Q Inspiration

But if the CES automotive announcements were of the not-too-distant future, the NAIAS automotive announcements were pretty much about the not-too-long-from-right-now.

Given the proximity in time between CES and NAIAS, there are some people who wonder whether the allure of Las Vegas will trump the climatically challenging Detroit.

And that is one of the key subjects that is discussed on this edition of “Autoline After Hours.” Autoline’s John McElroy, Detroit Free Press auto critic Mark Phelan, Automobile Magazine Detroit bureau chief Todd Lassa, and I kick around that issue.

And we look at a number of other issues, including sawing into a Tesla Model 3, the remarkable number of Lyft drivers and a whole lot more.

All of which you can see right here.