Toyota vehicles debut online amid crisis

When Toyota introduced two new vehicles Monday, its executives didn’t brag about them from an elaborate stage inside a convention center.

Instead, the new Sienna minivan and a revived Venza midsize SUV were shown online from the company’s nearly deserted U.S. headquarters and from the driveway of an executive’s home.

Both were supposed to be unveiled at the New York International Auto Show in April, but the show was postponed until late August due to the novel coronavirus. That would have been too close to when Toyota’s vehicles would reach showrooms, so the company decided to go on its own.

The move may be a sign of things to come for New York and other shows. Some automakers already were starting to pull out of auto shows, citing costs and the ability to do events on their own. That left fewer models for consumers to browse at the shows. Now doing it online could be a viable solution, possibly causing more automakers to leave the shows.

In addition to Toyota, Nissan is planning to show an updated Rogue crossover SUV, its top-selling model, at a virtual event in June. Ford has delayed the debuts of a new F-150 pickup and Bronco SUV, while General Motors held off on unveiling a new battery powered Cadillac SUV. Those, too, could be done online, although no one is sure if the virus will start a trend.

“I don’t know if unveiling an all-new model from my house is getting back to a new normal, but let’s see how it goes,” Jack Hollis, head of the Toyota division in North America, said while showing off the Venza from his driveway.