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SEMA SHOW 2022: Trends And Discoveries At Future’s Edge
SEMA, the biggest car event of the year, was even bigger in 2022 attendance-wise than in 2021. It felt like there was twice the number of people there this year, and it was an incredible sensation!
SEMA, the biggest car event of the year, was even bigger in 2022 attendance-wise than in 2021. It felt like there was twice the number of people there this year, and it was an incredible sensation!
The heavy hitters like Ford, Chevy, Honda, etc., not showing up disappointed many people, but Toyota and Dodge were more than happy to take control of the space and deliver a great show.
The multiple building display Ma Mopar put on were very impressive. Their full-court press on the “Last Call’ editions of the Hemi Challenger and Chargers packed their spaces the whole week.
Without question, one of the most impressive cars in the Dodge booth was the fully licensed 1970 full carbon fiber Dodge Charger manufactured by Finale Speed out of Yukon, Oklahoma. Fully licensed meaning you can now open Dodge’s Direct Connection catalog and order yourself one of these works of art. Want to save 1000 lbs of weight building your Charger, make all your friends jealous and have $200k to burn? This is the car for you!
Even though some of the other big guns weren’t there, you wouldn’t have realized with all the awesome things going on. The room was always full of excitement, and the mood was upbeat and positive for the whole event.
What were the trends at the SEMA Show?
The hot iron this year was, for the most part, similar to last year, with a few exceptions.
Of course, ultra-clean high, dollar builds were the norm. The overlanders were gaining popularity, and interesting guest builds were found on the show floor. The ever-present classic car iron with modern power plants and retro mods are always a favorite.
There were a lot of ‘Donks’
There were more truck donks, or “Tonka Donks” as we call them (patent pending), than we have ever seen. Almost more Tonka Donks than any other category of iron!
We also learned that if you have Tonka Donks, you must have a train horn to go with it!
No paint builds
Another popular trend we saw was the “no paint” deal. A paint job is typically graded, critiqued, and judged by how good the metalwork is underneath.
What better way to show just how good your metalwork is than having no paint?
Everything is laid bare for all to see. No hiding. Only your skill and mastery of metal shows. It’s especially impressive to see the beauty of the pure metal bodies and the incredible craftsmanship.
Preserving the right to modify and race our cars and trucks
Compared to modern cars, the ’60s and 70’s cars have finally lost their “fast” status. They were fast for a long time. Especially through the malaise era of the 80s when the new cars were turds.
Current cars are faster than anything before them. Owning an old car now is about cruising and style instead of ruling the road.
Old and new cars are great but do different things and give different experiences. We wonder just how long these inflated muscle car prices will hang on considering aging baby boomers will soon be trying to sell their beloved muscle cars they’re no longer able to drive to a market of car hating millennials.
We were glad to see the SEMA Political Action Committee is active in preserving our right to modify and race our cars and trucks. There are ongoing attempts to ban gasoline, ban access to land, and ban your right to modify your car. The RPM Act (Recognizing the Protection of Motorsports) was a huge initiative by SEMA to save these rights and was the most bipartisan supported bill last year. Although it did not pass, they have built momentum and are charting a new path forward for 2023. SEMA PAC supports these congressional efforts and is a very worthwhile organization to donate to preserve our car culture for years to come.
Hoonigan Audi S1 Hoonitron and EV’s
Along those lines, the ever-present push to go all-electric persists. We attended the Ken Block & Brian Scio presentation. Ken and Brian attempted to push the limits of performance of what’s available in electric power by unveiling the Hoonigan Hoonitron and the electric khana video.
We’re die-hard ICE fans, but we witnessed what the all-wheel-drive Hoonitron did on Vegas's streets and agreed it was undeniably cool! What they did in cooperation with Audi development and their engineers was the birth of something new.
Definitely pushing EVs to the limit.
The loss of Ken Block was felt by all of us here, and as an industry, we are diminished. #kenblock43 #kb43ver
Mike Copland and the rise of hydrogen
We don’t feel that quiet EVs are the only band-aid to a clean future for the planet.
Arrington Performance CEO Mike Copland and his visionary 1964 Ford Falcon, which was revealed at the Redline booth, could be the answer we’re looking for.
His creation is cleaner than the cleanest EV.
Why?
Green hydrogen, that’s why!
It runs on hydrogen, and the only emission is water. We’re talking about a zero-carbon footprint! The creation of hydrogen is zero carbon and utilizes wind and hydroelectric power.
We reported on his groundbreaking hydrogen-powered truck last year, and he’s back with even new promising developments.
What he’s doing now is nothing short of amazing.
Copeland has continued to develop the tech since its introduction at SEMA last year. Hydrogen itself explodes fast, three times as fast as gasoline. It has the potential for powerful, more efficient engines with zero emissions.
He’s not the only one who has made this realization.
Google has made big commitments to hydrogen and other places like Walmart and Amazon, which already have fleets of hydrogen-powered vehicles in their distribution centers while producing hydrogen on-site.
The new hydrogen infrastructure is coming, and new refineries owned by companies like Philips 66 are coming online.
Las Vegas currently has the largest hydrogen production with a plant that could support 40,000 vehicles. Last year there were hardly any! Not to mention 3M has developed a powder that creates large amounts of hydrogen.
Another breakthrough is one that was stumbled upon when the power went out during the hydrogen production process. When they returned, they found ten times more hydrogen was produced in the darkness than in the light! Who’d have thought? The tech is evolving more rapidly than anyone predicted.
A key to the development of hydrogen in cars is overcoming its extreme volatility. Copeland’s team made the breakthrough of using port injection of water (while the hydrogen is direct injected).
The water slows the explosion enough to make the combustion much more controllable and efficient.
The exciting news is that Copeland is developing a system allowing you to retrofit your ICE car to run on hydrogen.
Think of the possibilities!
An affordable easy bolt-on hydrogen kit for your car.
There are over 190 million cars already on the road, all being able to convert to hydrogen. Electric can’t say that. A solution like this is so much more cost-effective than everyone selling their ICE cars and buying brand-new expensive electric cars.
The bonus for us car guys is a hydrogen car sounds like an ICE car. Not quiet and soulless like an EV, but raucous and loud like a supercharged V8!
The hydrogen retrofit kit being developed is so far along that they predict it will get CARB zero emissions certification by the end of the year. Predictions are the hydrogen conversion kits should be available in late 2024 or early 2025.
Let’s hope so!
