Toronto, Ontario – The Toronto and Montreal auto shows are officially a no-go this year, as a lack of automaker participation has forced the organizers to take the year off.
Dates were already set for the inaugural virtual auto shows, with the Montreal show rescheduled to Jan. 20-24 and Toronto’s to take place over it’s original Feb. 12-22 schedule.
Event organizers made the choice to call off both shows following a disappointing response from automakers and potential exhibitors as “quite a few” elected to forego this year’s shows and hold out until events can be held in-person again.
“A number of [manufacturers] wanted to stay focused on their own internal presentations digitally … and felt that they would really rather wait until we can do something live,” said Jason Campbell, general manager of the Canadian International AutoShow (CIAS).
Campbell says that CIAS is hoping to return to their live format come 2022.
“The enthusiasm to return to live events is one that bodes well for us,” Campbell said.
“For years, we’ve been told by manufacturers [to] get much more into the virtual space. What this is showing us clearly is the hunger to get people to sit in the vehicle, touch, feel, and experience that.”
