Kickstart: Tamping down expectations in Detroit

Buzz about the 2023 North American International Show in Detroit has been muted. The 2022 show — moved to September after a two-year COVID-related break — underwhelmed, with a limited number of new vehicle launches and far smaller crowds during the media and industry previews.

So when show organizers the Detroit Auto Dealers Association said that it would have double the number of brands participating during the 2023 show set for Sept. 13-24 at Huntington Place (formerly called Cobo Hall), it sounded like things were looking up.

But Jamie Butters, executive editor of our sister paper Automotive News, is out with a new column that throws cold water on those hopes. Several brands have already said they won't take part, including Volkswagen, Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, BMW, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru and Honda.

"A big part of the problem is that Detroit is a very hard market for international brands to conquest sales. A lot of car consumers work for the Detroit automakers or their suppliers," Butters writes.

Low involvement isn't unique to Detroit, though, he continues.

"Auto shows have been struggling. Most of the once-global shows are now regional, or just national: Paris is mostly French brands; Munich (formerly in Frankfurt) is mostly German. Only Japanese brands exhibit in Tokyo," he says.

You can find the full column here.

Perhaps if you want to get a clearer idea of the role plastics will play in future mobility, then you should skip traditional auto shows and check out plastics industry events.

On June 14 and 15, machinery maker Engel hosted Mobility Days along with KTM Technologies, a maker of high-end motorcycles.

RTM and Engel — both Austrian companies — debuted a motorcycle seat base using a tape sandwich process at the event. The composite can reduce weight and cut production costs, the companies said.

Other transportation companies are working closely with the machinery company.

Engel's clearmelt technology — a two-component process combining in-mold decoration with polyurethane flood-coating — is used by German automaker BMW for panels at the front of the iX electric car, in one instance.

"The kidney-shaped panels protect a series of sensors for assisted and, in the future, autonomous driving. To make sure that the sensors also work reliably in the winter, BMW back-injects a heatable functional film with polycarbonate, which is then flood-coated with polyurethane," Engel said in a news release.

Anyone with a love for classic writing instruments and plastics may want to check out Desiderata Pen Co., a fountain pen, handmade by its creator out of his garage in Chicago, available with machined acrylic bodies.

Pierre Miller said he had problems finding exactly the pen he wanted, so with the help of a tool and die maker, he developed his own, although he admits he doesn't always have the right purpose to use the items, which retail for $350 for most items.

"I love a good writing instrument, but in our increasingly digital society — where the hand-written word is going the way of the dodo — sometimes it's hard to find the occasion to use one," Miller says on his website.