Author: Martina Bonino | Brand Experience and Client Relations Manager at Konzepthaus
What Monterey Car Week 2026 tells us about Automotive Design
As every year, this August, Monterey Car Week once again turned a small stretch of California into one of the most concentrated stages in the automotive world.
While I couldn’t attend personally this time around, I followed the week’s events closely online and through the conversations happening across the industry. And this year, I found myself looking at them through the particular lens from a branding perspective:
When everyone has something special to show, what actually gives people a reason to remember you?
When everyone is fighting for attention, identity wins
Between heritage celebrations, newly revealed concepts, racing icons, unexpected collaborations, and exciting brand activations, everyone arrives at Monterey Car Week with something worth looking at.
The yearly competition around who gets the most attention starts all over again.
Although this is (part of) why Monterey’s auto show remains one of the most anticipated moments of the automotive calendar, at the same time, it has become one of the most complex and expensive environments in which to actually stand out.
So while this pushes everyone to raise the bar, it also makes one thing increasingly clear: simply “being there” is no longer enough, you need a very good reason to be remembered.
And some brands proved without a doubt that they have one.
Acura chose The Quail to introduce the NEXERA Vision, offering a first look at the brand’s next Design language.
What interests me here isn’t simply another concept car, but the decision to use Monterey to make a statement about direction. To confidently say “This is where we’re going next.” Because in an environment dominated by heritage, using the platform to introduce the future chapter of a brand is a very different, and potentially very powerful, choice.
Then there is Lamborghini. Honestly, I am not surprised to see the brand once again at the centre of the Monterey conversation.
This year, the 60th anniversary of the Miura, alongside the strong presence of the Diablo, once again brought heritage and contemporary Lamborghini into the same conversation. And Lamborghini once again showed they understand how to use Monterey Car Week as a platform to grow this conversation rather than simply presenting a product. They don’t seem to treat heritage as an archive to occasionally revisit but as an active brand asset, something that continuously reinforces what the brand means today.
One of the projects that made me stop this year was the McLaren McL 6GT. Because here, heritage is being used to suggest a future direction.
The project goes back to Bruce McLaren’s unfinished M6GT vision from 1969 and brings that philosophy into the present, including a return to a manual transmission.
For me, however, it’s not about the nostalgia, and more about the strategic decision to look back at why a brand existed in the first place before deciding where to take it next. At a time when so many automotive brands are questioning what their future identity should be, there is something very relevant about returning to the original idea and asking: “What made people care about us in the first place?”
A completely different reason to be remembered: the Singer × Louis Vuitton collaboration.
From my perspective, whether the result is a “beautiful car” or not, is of lesser importance. Instead, I’m looking and this project from a branding perspective. Two highly recognisable universes coming together through craftsmanship, materials, leatherwork, watchmaking, and luggage, creating something that extends far beyond simply putting one brand’s logo onto another brand’s product.
While Singer brings its obsessive approach to reimagining the Porsche 911, Louis Vuitton brings an equally obsessive heritage around craftsmanship, travel, and objects. The outcome: a connection that feels understandable without needing a long explanation.
The Singer x Louis Vuitton presence at Monterey Car Week underlines my belief that the collaborations that work best are the ones where both sides truly bring their own and something meaningful to the table. And Monterey is perhaps one of the few places in the world where an exercise like this can simultaneously find the right audience, context, and amplification.
Meanwhile, at the iconic WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion put Japanese Performance at the centre of its 2026 edition.
To me, this was one of the most interesting statements of the entire auto show.
Over the past months or years, the JDM culture has become increasingly desirable. But beyond that, it connects to a much broader conversation happening in Automotive right now: Japan (and Korea) as two of the most interesting automotive territories to watch.
They are changing quickly, experimenting with new technologies, products, and Design languages, all while somehow, at the core, identity remains.
This is where I see a contrast with parts of the European Automotive Design industry where we are watching several brands search for a completely new identity as they try to understand what their future should look like. In Japan and Korea, it often feels as though brands are instead asking how they can use their identity to build that future.
It’s a subtle difference, but I think it’s an important one.
And perhaps that’s the biggest takeaway for me from Monterey this year: When everyone is fighting for attention, having something to show matters. But having something to say, and knowing who you are while saying it, matters much more.
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