Ford Will Not Attend CES 2022 Amid COVID-19 Resurgence

January 4, 2022 6:52 am

With the omicron variant of COVID-19 once again causing active cases to skyrocket, many are taking steps to scale back things like public gatherings while employers like Ford are pushing back plans to bring white-collar workers back to offices. That includes this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which has seen a number of participants back out in recent days. Now, that list includes Ford, as the automaker’s North America product communications director, Mike Levine, has confirmed to Ford Authority that The Blue Oval will not attend CES 2022. Levine did not cite omicron or COVID-19 as FoMoCo’s reason for skipping CES 2022, however.

Ford has long enjoyed a strong presence at CES, as in previous years, the Ford GT served as the show’s official vehicle, while former Ford CEO Jim Hackett even gave a keynote speech at the technology showcase back in 2017. As Ford Authority reported back in July, this year’s show was slated to feature more from the automotive world than ever before, driven by the fact that consumer technology continues to become more and more integrated into the vehicles we drive.

A grand total of 175 companies from the transportation and vehicle technology category were scheduled to appear at CES 2022, which would have represented a 12 percent increase over 2020. Ford was slated to be joined by companies such as General Motors, Turing Auto, Fisker, Daimler AG, and Waymo in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s new West Hall when the event opens to the media January 5^th-8^th, 2022.

Late last month, Ford’s cross-town rival GM announced that it was also pulling out of this year’s CES due to the surge in COVID-19 cases, joining Waymo, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, T-Mobile, and others. GM CEO Mary Barra was scheduled to make a keynote speech at the event, which was also slated to serve as the venue for the automaker’s reveal of the all-electric Chevrolet Silverado pickup, which will now take place virtually.

We’ll be on hand to cover all things Ford at the 2022 CES show, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.

By Brett Foote

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.