Who’s winning the concept car game at this year’s Detroit Auto Show?

The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) is important, not least because it’s the first car show of the year. Get the tone right in the home of American motoring and you could set yourself up for a brilliant year. Get it wrong and you could find yourself playing catch-up for the rest of the year.

This year has seen plenty of unveilings, although to be honest, a fair few of the cars are either refreshed versions of models currently on the road or are making their North American debut, having had the wraps taken off at various car shows in 2014.

Anyway, outside of the battle between the Honda NSX and the Ford GT going on at this year’s show, the real excitement is around the concept cars that have been unveiled.

It makes sense too: concept cars allow designers allow car designers to let their imaginations run free. They can make the kind of car that gets people going “holy crap! I’d totally buy that if they built it!” rather than the one with the sensible fuel economy and safety features that people will actually buy.

But which of the manufacturers have played their cards right and produced concepts worthy production models and which have flopped harder than that dirty joke you told at your cousin’s wedding?

Winners

The Chevrolet Bolt

Introduced alongside a new version of the Volt, Chevrolet’s Bolt is the car maker’s attempt at an affordable long-range electric car. It makes sense therefore that it’s decided to build something in the crossover class, although the Bolt wouldn’t exactly get lost in a line up of its peers.

There are plenty of striking lines, loads of glass and a bold interior. The fact that it doesn’t look completely ridiculous and come with doors that fold out at unfeasible angles or a steering joystick, suggests that something approximately close to it could find its way into production.

Hyundai Santa Cruz Crossover Truck

It’s really surprising that Hyudai hasn’t built a pick-up truck until now. The South Korean marque has, after all, achieved success in pretty much every other vehicle class.

The Santa Cruz Crossover Truck Concept is a little more sporty than most trucks and comes with some pretty innovative features, including lens-free, honeycombed headlamp projectors, and prominent LED fog lamps.

Despite the fact that it has four doors and seating for five, it’s got the same footprint as an ordinary crossover, making it a lot easier to handle in cities than most other trucks.

The feature we’d most like to see retained in a production version though is the tailgate extension, which gives you a little extra luggage space when you need it.

Buick Avenir

If you’re anything like us, you probably haven’t spent too much time thinking about Buick over the past few years. The Avenir could change that in a big way. Simply put, it’s gorgeous.

A long bonnet, sweeping lines and well-placed side vents mean it looks like a future classic. Buick should absolutely build the Avenir as is. The only way it could ruin it is by sticking a rubbish, underpowered American engine inside that bonnet.

Chasers

Infiniti Q60

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the Infiniti Q60 concept per se — the sports coupe it’s set to inspire will likely sell well among the kind of people who like to tell you how much they earn within the first five minutes of meeting you — it’s just that it doesn’t really have any kind of significant “wow” factor.

It ticks all the boxes, but isn’t likely to inspire spontaneous tears of joy among true petrol-heads.

Honda FCV

This concept isn’t strictly new, having made its debut in Japan last year. That’s one factor in it placing here, another is that it suffers from the opposite problem to the Q60. A great concept car should get you excited about the driving technology we’ll be using in the near future. Unfortunately, that hype has largely died down in the hydrogen space with a number of factors ensuring that it’s still some way from becoming truly viable as a mainstream fuel source.

Bringing up the rear

VW Cross Coupe GTE

The Cross Coupe GTE is very much a sign that that Volkswagen has its sights set on conquering America with a big brash SUV. In 2013, it introduced a CrossBlue concept at Detroit which is partly the inspiration for the seven-seat 5-metre-long crossover it plans on launching there in 2016.

The Cross Coupe GTE supposedly provides even more clues as to what the giant VW SUV will look like, although its only a five seater and the roof’s been lowered. The trouble is, in trying to keep its traditional design cues, VW’s created what looks like a Tiguan that’s spent a little too much time at the gym.