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Five Reasons You Should Not Miss SAE WCX 2024

As anyone working in the automotive / mobility industry knows, we are currently in an era of major change and disruption. And that environment of change has also extended to the industry’s longstanding events and trade shows.

It was recently announced that the Detroit Auto Show would be moving from its newer date in September back to its old stomping grounds of January and recentering its focus on consumers and car buyers. Next year, that show will also coincide with the massive CES show in Las Vegas, which has become a key industry event over recent years … but which can be too expensive for many automotive and mobility suppliers.

With both well-known shows not being the right fit for some automotive suppliers, and journalists who cover the industry looking for additional opportunities to engage with decision makers and newsmakers in the automotive supply chain, other events on the industry calendar are worth considering.

One of those is the upcoming SAE WCX™ World Congress Experience, being held at Detroit’s Huntington Place from April 16-18.

Now in its 118^th year, WCX is North America’s largest technical mobility event and has a sharper focus on the engineering side of the business, bringing together experts to share insight on the latest technical advancements, regulations, standards, and consumer expectations impacting the industry.

Powered by SAE International®, the global leader in connecting and educating engineers, WCX provides an unmatched opportunity to see all the moving parts in today’s mobility industry and the groundbreaking innovations that are shaping the next phase.

And for many automaker and supplier executives, it’s held essentially in their “backyard” – Motown.

Sponsored by the likes of Ford, GM, Stellantis, Toyota and more, WCX not only features 200+ technical sessions and nearly 1,200 presentations touching on everything from AI to smart manufacturing and from EV infrastructure to future design.

For automotive and mobility suppliers looking to differentiate their company from the crowd, the event also offers a host of engagement opportunities via its exhibits, sponsorships, keynote speakers and a variety of special events.

Whether you’re new to WCX or attended in the pre-COVID days when the world was different, here are our Five Top Reasons why WCX is a show you’ll want to check out:

1. Keynotes and Exhibitors – this year’s WCX features nearly 100 exhibitors, including Ford, GM, Hyundai, Toyota and a range of suppliers, plus a strong lineup of keynote speakers, including: Doug Field, Chief EV, Digital and Design Officer, Ford Motor Company; Avinash Balachandran, Ph.D., Senior Director, Human Interactive Driving, Toyota Research Institute; and Jeremiah Golston, Senior Vice President and Head of Automotive Engineering, Qualcomm, to name just a few.

2. The Leadership Summit – Taking place on the expo floor, the Leadership Summit portion of WCX features industry executives participating in a series of roundtable discussions focusing on the intersection of technology and business. This year, the Summit will feature participants from companies such as Stellantis, Volkswagen, Honda, Lucid, Hyundai, BorgWarner, Schaeffler, DANA, ZF, Intel, Google Auto, the U.S. Dept. of Energy, the U.S. Dept of Transportation and more. During the sessions, topics such as technology development, consumer acceptance, regulations, and their influence on vehicle design and development will be discussed.

3. Special Events for 2024 – In conjunction with this year’s WCX, General Motors will be hosting a HYDROTEC Fuel Cell Event where GM executives will share insight on the company’s fuel cell strategy and get up close to several HYDROTEC properties, including the HYDROTEC power cube, the mobile power generator, and the recently announced fuel cell medium duty truck as part of GM’s new pilot program with Southern Company. WCX attendees will also get to experience an EV Ride & Drive during the show this year, featuring acceleration and agility demonstrations from vehicles such as the Polestar 2, Tesla Model Y, Lucid Air, Rivian R1T/SUV/R1S, Kia EV 9, BMW I7, Mercedes Benz EQS, and more.

4. Vehicles on Display – Nearly 40 vehicles including GM’s Class 8 Semi Truck & Trailer, Medium Duty Fuel Cell Truck and Electrovan, Toyota’s RAV 4 PHEV and BZ4X, the Ford Mustang GT500, BYD Seagull, Tesla Cybertruck and more are expected to be on the show floor. The event will also feature teardowns and analysis from Caresoft Global Technologies and from Munro & Associates on the Tesla Cybertruck.

5. Immersive Atmosphere – Between the many Technical Sessions offering deep-dive conversations into technology impacting the industry, the WCX Learning Lab featuring insight from technology industry leaders and the SAE Edge^TM Research Reports Knowledge Bar providing an intimate discussion with experts. They will share insight on topics including electric vehicle charging, software defined vehicles, cybersecurity, system engineering and much more. This gives attendees a variety of opportunities to engage with industry leaders, decision makers, technical experts and more across a wide swath of hot topics and issues impacting the mobility space.

With the mobility industry transforming like never before, there’s may be no better place to discover what that looks like than at WCX – the only place where everyone, including mechanical, electrical and software engineers, the entire mobility community and supply chain – comes to collaborate on a vision for the future.

Registration for the free SAE WCX Expo and paid technical programs can be done here. For more information, visit: https://wcx.sae.org/.

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