2008 North American International Auto Show

The 2008 Chevrolet Malibu received NAIAS Car of the Year award.

The North American International Auto Show (previously called the Detroit Auto Show and often abbreviated NAIAS) is an annual automobile show that occurs every year in Detroit, Michigan.

The first auto show occurred in Detroit in 1907. It was renamed the North American International Auto Show in 1989. Since 1961, it has been held at Cobo Center where it occupies 1 million square feet (93,000 m²) of floor space. The show is particularly important because the Metro Detroit area is the location of the headquarters of the Big Three American automakers, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors.

The 2008 Mazda cx-9 received NAIAS Truck of the Year award.

The 2008 NAIAS welcomed 15,000 guests and raised $6 million for children's charities. The NAIAS marked a major milestone with the 2007 show: it broke the 1,000 mark for new model and concept car introductions since going international in 1989. The show ran from January 13 through January 27.

• January 13-15 — Press days
• January 16-17 — Industry days
• January 18 — Charity preview
• January 19-27 — Open to the public

Production Car Introduction:


























There were many cases of the use of carbon fiber accents on hoods, roofs and under-panels on cars. The Corvette ZR1 (shown below) has a carbon fiber roof.






























































CONCEPTS :


Dodge's Zeo concept (below) is a pure-electric four-seat sports car that employs rear-wheel-drive and boasts a claimed 0-60 time of under six seconds. Chrysler claims the lithium-ion battery pack gives the Zeo a range of 250 miles.

Fisker Automotive (below) was present and introduced a new all-electric car, beating the Chevrolet Volt to the market place. In addition, the Fisker model (Karma) had a novel solar panel roof to power accessories in the car and to help recharge the onboard drive batteries.













































Cold weather. A struggling Michigan economy. The absence of Porsche. Those are just some of the possible reasons for the slight dip in attendance at the 2008 NAIAS. This January, 72,814 people attended the auto show, down by 3.4% from 2007. Record attendance was set in 2003 when 810,699 people came.

With oil prices still volatile and political leaders looking to lessen the nation's dependence on foreign oil, the green theme is likely to continue next year.