The 2024 Canadian International AutoShow is back in full-force, with 45 OEMs being represented — up from 28 at last year’s show.
There will be 25 Canadian debuts and two world debuts at the show that officially opens to the public on Feb. 16 and runs until Feb. 25 in sprawling displays occupying 650,000 square feet at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Ontario. The event has been held in one form or another since 1974, and boasts an annual attendance of more than 350,000 people.
With all of that hoopla and car eye candy to take in, hundreds of automotive journalists, bloggers, and influencers from across Canada made their annual pilgrimage to Toronto yesterday for a sneak preview of the newest models and concept cars being unveiled, and to report on the various winners in awards contests that all culminate around the start of CIAS 2024.
From Canadian Black Book’s Best Residual Value Awards Winners, to the winners of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) Canadian Car of the Year awards, it’s a busy day of reveals and revelations. (See our story in today’s enews outlining the CBB winners.)
This year’s opening ceremonies for Media Preview Day also featured an interview with Mate Rimac, CEO of Rimac, who was joined on stage by dealer Paul Cummings, CEO of Grand Touring Automobiles, whose group sells the Rimac vehicles in the Canadian market.
Their chat was interrupted with a “surprise” appearance by Richard Hammond, the larger than life broadcaster best known as one of the hosts of the popular Top Gear television program, who drove up in a Rimac Nevera and joined them on stage to continue the conversation. Hammond famously crashed a Rimac while filming an episode of the Grand Tour in 2027, and it flipped upside down before later bursting into flames. He quipped to the company’s CEO that this time around he had at least parked the Rimac right side up!
Rimac described how his passion for automobiles as a young boy translated into a lifelong pursuit of building automobiles and a car company based in his homeland of Croatia — in a corner of the world that had no history of making cars.
Rimac’s impressive story led to the development of next generation vehicles like the 1,900 horsepower Rimac Nevera that Hammond drove and that is on display at this year’s show. The fully electric hypercar has a top speed of more than 400 km/h and can go from 0-100 km/h in 1.81 seconds.
Canadian car dealer Cummings, who owns Canada’s largest luxury, super-luxury and hyper-luxury vehicle retailer, Grand Touring Automobiles, chatted with Rimac on stage and they discussed some of the vehicle’s extraordinary features. It was great to see a car dealer prominently involved in a show opening that, understandably, is OEM focused.
After their chat, the leaders of AJAC presented their Canadian Car of the Year Awards in four categories. With nervous OEMs from the finalists companies in the crowd awaiting to see if their brand won, the journalists named the winners in four categories:
- Canadian Car of the Year: Toyota Prius
- Canadian Utility Vehicle of the Year: Toyota Grand Highlander
- Canadian Electric Car of the Year: Genesis Electrified G80
- Canadian Electric Utility Vehicle of the Year: Genesis Electrified GV70
Accepting the AJAC awards for Toyota was Stephen Beatty, Vice-President and Corporate Secretary of Toyota Canada, who said that it was an emotional moment for him to see the Prius win this award 25 years after its introduction in Canada.
Eric Marshall, Director Genesis Canada, accepted his brand’s two AJAC trophies and delivered his remarks in English and French before posing for photos with the winning vehicles.
AJAC overhauled their annual awards competition this year, and reported that more than 600 detailed ballots from AJAC member journalists across Canada voted for the winners.
The auto show week continues tonight with a series of social events in downtown Toronto, including the Cars, Cocktails and Conversations event hosted by a variety of auto industry suppliers, the Automotive Business School of Canada’s (ABSC) Alumni Gala, and of course VIP night.
For info and tickets visit: autoshow.ca.
