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  • Toyota’s Akio Toyoda Chosen 2021 World Car Person of the Year

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    Toyoda

    Selected 2021 World Car Awards Person of the Year was Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) president and CEO.

    Toyoda

    “Akio Toyoda is the charismatic President and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation. He has spent years successfully remaking his company. In 2020 despite COVID-19, under his leadership Toyota remained profitable, protecting jobs worldwide. He has maintained Toyota’s steady pace of development in the connected, autonomous, shared and electric (CASE) era. He has also initiated construction of the Woven City, an exciting, real-life prototype city of the future. All while actively participating in motorsports himself, as a driver,” said the World Car Awards in a statement.

    Toyoda said, “At Toyota, we are very fortunate that we were able to protect the employment of our team members during COVID-19 and continue our work to meet the future challenge of our industry. Creating new ways to support the well-being of our planet and people everywhere is our commitment. This has been a difficult period in the history of the world. But it has also reminded us that people are what matters most. And if we at Toyota can contribute some measure of happiness to their lives, it will be my never-ending goal to do just that.”

    Toyoda

    Toyota joined the company in 1984, after graduating with a law degree from Keio University. He also received a masters in business administration from Wellesley, Massachusetts’ Babson College. Toyoda served in different areas of the business in Japan and overseas, before becoming a member of the TMC board of directors in 2000. He held other senior and executive vice-presidential roles until becoming TMC president in 2009.

    Toyoda The World Car Person of the Year award was established in 2018 to acknowledge the contributions made by an individual in the auto industry during the previous year. The World Car Awards program hands out six awards annually, which they started doing in 2003. A group of more than 90 journalists, none of whom are a part of TheTruthAboutCars.com, made the selection.

    [Images: Toyota, Babson College]


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  • Chicago Auto Show Postpones 2021 Gathering Due to Pandemic

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    Chicago Auto Show organizers have postponed the 2021 event indefinitely.

    In what has become an all-too-familiar scenario, the coronavirus pandemic claimed another automotive event: the 2021 Chicago Auto Show.

    The pandemic has forced nearly every major show since the 2020 Chicago Auto Show in February to either reschedule, cancel all together or shift to an online format. No new dates have been set and the website for the show simply shows the dates as “Spring 2021.” It was initially set to run Feb. 13-21.

    “We are working with our partners at McCormick Place as well as state and city officials to develop a plan that allows us to open the 2021 Chicago Auto Show in a safe and responsible manner,” Mark Bilek, senior director of communications and technology for the Chicago Auto Show, told TheDetroitBureau.com in an email.

    (Detroit Auto Show organizers moving NAIAS again.)

    The 2020 Chicago Auto Show was basically the last full-on, in-person auto show.

    “State officials are currently reviewing our plan. While our traditional February dates are unlikely, we are hopeful to be able to stage the show sometime in the spring.” Bilek told Automotive News show organizers were hoping some time in March, April or May.

    Chicago is one of the larger shows on the North American circuit of global auto shows, and very focused on consumers. Bilek noted the show organizers are working with healthcare officials with the city and state to determine when the show can be held.

    Not only does the show have to deal with the always changing impact of the pandemic, it’s also got to find a space between other auto shows that have already been forced to reschedule dates. The most immediate show between now and the now postponed Chicago event is the annual Consumer Electronics Show.

    Organizers now say they plan to go to an “all-digital” format for CES in January. Better known as the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual show has become a major event for automakers at a time when their vehicles are becoming increasingly high tech. Dozens of automakers and auto suppliers filled an entire wing of the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center in January 2020.

    (CES goes digital — but will automakers (virtually) stick around in 2021?)

    “Amid the pandemic and growing global health concerns about the spread of COVID-19, it’s just not possible to safely convene tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas in early January 2021 to meet and do business in person,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CTA, the group that runs the annual show.

    Nissan showed off the Ariya Concept at CES last January. Will automakers go with the show in 2021 when it becomes an internet-only event.

    The New York International Auto Show, normally held in April, moved to Aug. 20-29 at the Javits Convention Center. Show organizers tried to push back its 2020 show to this fall before ultimately cancelling it. They got proactive and delayed the 2021 event.

    The North American International Auto Show in Detroit for 2021 moved its projected June date to now late September in what organizers are calling a “reimagined indoor and outdoor show.”

    Public days for the show will now be Sept. 28 – Oct. 9, 2021 with the media preview and other events actually kicking off Sept. 24. Organizers say the NAIAS will be a “fall show going forward.” When it finally opens, it will be 2.5 years between Detroit auto shows.

    (New York Auto Show postponed until August due to coronavirus.)

    Other shows are still formulating plans, and those plans don’t even account for large classic car shows like the Pebble Beach Concours and others.


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