CES 2020: Tech Giants Showcase New Concept Cars

Concept cars, flying machines and smart bikes are unveiled annually in various great exhibitions across the world to showcase new technology to the enthusiasts.

They are often shown at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not be mass-produced.

This year CES tech show is hosting the new technology devices in a 4-day event, which opened on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

Technology giants like Apple, Google and others often hold their own announcement events.

What is a Concept Car?

Cambridge dictionary defines a concept car as “a car built as a prototype to show and test new ideas, which may or may not be developed or produced in larger numbers.”

Concept cars are of paramount importance at auto shows; automakers showcase their concept cars in different places to introduce the new features or ideas they would like to implement into future vehicles and would like not to be unnoticed.

Unfortunately, these cars sometimes are only for shows, i.e. they are not necessarily and always make it into mass production. If carmakers receive positive responses from the audience and technology centers for the concept shown off, they will probably start a production line in the future.

History of Concept Cars

Over the years, automakers have used concept cars to showcase their innovations, new technology and futuristic safety features. Nowadays the concept vehicles have taken the stage at auto shows across the globe, to gauge public reactions towards the new technology in the car manufacturing industry.

Buick which is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) was the first auto company that introduced the first-ever concept car in 1938, known as 1938 Buick Y-Job, to showcase a new technology never seen in the cars that time like power windows and a power-retractable roof.

Unfortunately, Y-Job was never put into the regular production lineup; however, the idea paved the way for the production of next Buick vehicles with improved technology in the future and helped other automakers to create concept cars.

Lincoln Futura Concept aka. Batmobile, produced by Ford Motor Company and shown off in 1954, GM Firebird Series, the first gas-turbine car built and tested in the US, to evaluate the usefulness of gas turbine engines, and Alfa Romeo BAT were other old cars that made the history in the field of designing and producing concept cars worldwide.

CES 2020

If you’re ever on the hunt to see what’s coming from your favourite automaker, stop by an auto show like CES, annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and check out their latest concept model.

This year’s show hosted many technology giants with their new concept cars, including Sony,

1. Sony unveiled a whole concept car of its own called the Vision S. Sony did not indicate that it had any plans to sell the car to the public.

2. Honda introduced its Augmented Driving Concept to address the cultural transition to autonomous vehicles. It is a bulbous, buggy-like concept car with minimalistic driving controls.

3. Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR 2020, a bizarre-looking vehicle that features ‘bionic flaps’ at the back which look like scales from one of Avatar’s strange alien creatures.

4. Fiat exhibited a version of its Centoventi modular concept car.

Not all the cars on show are mere concepts.

5. Ford’s Mustang Mach E GT is an electric vehicle set to be released by the end of the year.

6. Toyota is displaying its LQ Level 4 concept car, which is designed for automated driving.

7. American-Danish entrepreneur Henrik Fisker unveiled an electric sport utility vehicle, the Fisker Ocean, which he plans to make commercially available by early 2022.