Las Vegas NowSEMA Show Draws Surprisingly Large Crowd of Attendees

SEMA Show Draws Surprisingly Large Crowd of Attendees

Many words describe the vehicles at the SEMA show -- hot rods, tricked out, customized and souped up. If it can be done to a car, it will be on display.

Organizers expected low attendance and they were shocked when the doors opened. "We have had a lot of interest this morning. A lot of people stopped by," said exhibitor Joe Phillipson with Adjure, Inc.

Phillipson owns a company started in his garage that makes LED headlights for cars and motorcycles. He never misses this trade show for aftermarket custom automotive parts. "If you miss this show, especially today, everybody thinks you went out of business. It's kind of a must to attend this show," he said.

It seems he's not alone in that thinking. There are 110,000 people registered and paid to come to the 2009 SEMA convention. That's an increase over last year. The biggest increase though comes from international guests. Twenty-percent of those registered are from outside the United States. All of these people will bring $173 million to the Las Vegas economy.

SEMA show vice president says so far this exceeded his expectations. "Everyone was a little on the fence prior to arriving in Las Vegas about what kind of show we will have," he said.

SEMA expanded into the ever-growing green market. For the second year, hybrid cars were featured prominently. "We have to drive towards cleaner cars, but at the same time it does not mean we have to give up on performance," said Simon Saba, founder of Saba Motor's, Inc.

Saba created an electric car that goes zero to 60 in five seconds. One charge will last 140 miles.

He, like the other exhibitors, hope they have made the next best thing in automotive history. "This is the Model T of high-performance electric cars," he said.

The SEMA show started Tuesday and will run through Friday. The attendees come from 100 different countries.