“We’re really at an inflection point for the mass adoption of EVs,” said Deborah Wahl, global chief marketing officer at GM. “It’s exploding much faster than we all thought.”
Global passenger EV sales were poised to reach as high as 6.3 million in 2021, according to a December report from research outlet BloombergNEF, nearly double 2020 figures. In North America, EV sales jumped 63 percent year over year in the third quarter.
GM, which is poised to further highlight developments from its BrightDrop commercial EV business division, is not the only automaker planning to showcase its electric vehicles. Stellantis said it would unveil an electric crossover concept called the Chrysler Airflow during the show, with further developments from Chrysler and other brands still to come.
Vietnamese EV maker VinFast, fresh off its North American debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, is expected to take part in CES. Another company planning to make its first CES stop is TOGG, also known as the Turkey Automobile Enterprise Group Inc. The company is expected to show an electric SUV that’s supposed to enter production in late 2022.
“There’s so much going on in the automotive world, and consumers, they really want their cars back,” said Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which runs CES, noting the product shortages that affected the industry throughout 2021. “There’s no question that the automobile has a long life ahead of it in terms of being a product consumers want, need, enjoy, appreciate.”
Plans for an in-person portion of this year’s CES included 20 percent more space dedicated to automotive technology, compared with the last in-person show, in 2020. The 2021 show was all virtual.
