Three McLarens, a Cybertruck, and dozens of other vehicles zoom into Philly this month for the annual auto show

The cars are back in town. That may seem like a given when the Philadelphia Auto Show opens its doors every winter at the Convention Center, just as 2025’s will on Jan. 11.

This time around, though, they’re soooo back.

Stellantis’ six brands and its hit Camp Jeep return after a one-year hiatus. Cadillac is returning after being away since pre-COVID days. Hyundai is back on the floor for the first time since 2022.

Volkswagen will bring the ID.Buzz EV minivan. Toyota will show off its all-new 2025 Crown Signia hybrid SUV. And Nissan will bring its all-new 2025 Armada three-row SUV.

Even EV brand Tesla will be at the show for the first time in 10 years, with its loved-hated Cybertruck as the star.

Speaking of EVs, the e-Track indoor EV ride-along is expanding, adding the buzzworthy ID.Buzz minivan from Volkswagen, along with at least 16 other electric vehicles that visitors can ride in right on the show floor. Other cars include Cadillac Lyriq and Escalade IQ; Chevrolet Blazer, Equinox, and Silverado EVs; Kia EV6 and EV9; Nissan Ariya; and Toyota bZ4X, Prius Prime, and RAV4 Prime.

This more robust show comes after a pretty good — but not stellar year — for automobile sales. All good signs for buyers.

“The consumer has growing strength post-COVID and the competition for that consumer dollar has intensified,” said Kevin Mazzucola, executive director of the Auto Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia. “It used to be ‘If you have something on the lot, I’ll buy it.’”

Thankfully, those days are behind us. It all seems appropriate for a show that’s coming at us even as we’re still recovering from the holidays, and running longer than usual — using the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday to add a 10th day to the proceedings.

The event will follow hot on the heels of Jan. 7-10’s CES International in Las Vegas, the electronics show which has become a go-to for the automotive industry, vying with the Los Angeles and New York auto shows for media and consumer interest.

Some of the other hot cars at this year’s auto show include the Ineos Grenadier, a Land Rover Defender-styled SUV from France that’s been showing up all over in online ads; the GMC Sierra EV pickup; and three kinds of McLarens.

The rest of the lineup is still being worked out, as show planning happens down to the wire.

Though the Philly Auto Show feels earlier than ever, last year’s show started just two days later. The timing for Mazzucola and his team all comes down to juggling the cars on display with other shows around the country with the weeks the convention center is open.

And it’s not the earliest the Philly Auto Show has been.

“I’ve had shows where the Mummers just got done with the parade and they were doing their thing at the Convention Center, and God bless ‘em right after all the award ceremony, they took off their [Mummers] stuff, all those union workers [who handle Convention Center displays], and away we went,” Mazzucola said.

A renaissance at the Philly Auto Show and other regional shows is a benefit for car buyers, said auto analyst Sam Fiorani, vice president for global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions in Chester Springs.

“Consumers show up to these things,” Fiorani said. “Consumers use car shows to ... shop products to find out which one fits them the best. It is a relatively inexpensive marketing tool for the number of people that interact with it.”

As regional shows like Philly’s come back, though, the auto industry has been holding steady against formidable headwinds.

The industry has pretty much recovered from the supply shortages of 2022 and 2023. It’s faced rising interest rates and been able to use discounts and special financing deals to continue selling vehicles.

“We don’t see the market taking off in ’25 but it will improve over ’24, which improved over ’23,” Fiorani said. “The potential for a couple more interest rate cuts next year will also help keep the economy moving.”

Interest rates have probably been the biggest drag on sales. The average annual percentage rate in 2024 for new vehicles was 7.1%, compared to 7.2% in 2023, and 5.9% in 2019, according to the car analyst group Edmunds. The average APR in 2024 for used vehicles was 11.4%, compared to 11.2% in 2023, and 8.7% in 2019.

While final 2024 sales tallies were still coming in, Edmunds forecasts just shy of 16 million new vehicles being sold for 2024. And they see a slight increase on the horizon for 2025, to 16.2 million.

EV sales peaked at 8.8% of total sales in September, before falling back to 8.6% in November. They’ve been slowly continuing their climb in market share, from 8% in 2023, 5% in 2022, and 3% in 2021.

The Philadelphia metropolitan area market (Philadelphia and its four Pennsylvania collar counties) has seen strong growth, according to Mazzucola. Auto sales here have followed a straight line upward in the past few years, going from 142,000 in 2022 to 148,000 in 2023, and are expected to hit 152,000 this year.

But even that latest high number is down 17% from 2019.

“Obviously it’s been improving gradually and I think that’s what we will see when we get into ’25,” Mazzucola said.

Of course, threats of tariffs loom over auto manufacturing. Companies have just finished moving production around to Mexico and Canada in response to incentives from the Biden administration and now may face more turmoil as Trump comes back for round two.

Speaking of comebacks, Back in the Day Way will continue to be a large part of the Philly Auto Show, with over two dozen cars from days gone by for visitors to linger over, including an 1886 Benz, a 1926/27 Ford Model A Roadster, 1932 Duesenberg, 1954 Kaiser Darrin, 1957 Corvette, and a 1968 Triumph TR-250.

Toyota will again sponsor an outdoor ride and drive on Philly streets with four of its models: 2025 Tacoma iForce Max, Grand Highlander, 4Runner, and Crown Signia.

And it’s all in person, hands on, no pixels, no cookies, no targeting.

“Everything is measured by how many clicks or data point or all of these things to track people,” Mazzucola said. “The auto show is one of the last bastions — I know some people that won’t even get online to check out a product because they’re going to get flooded [with advertisements]. Here’s a way to go and there isn’t that.”

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Genesis would be at the auto show.