Geneva Motor Show 2021 Canceled Again, Not Just Epidemic to Overwhelm 'Century-Old' Show

Author?

Writer? Summer Long

Editor? ｜Editor: Mr. Wang Shuangshuang Wang Shuangshuang

Unexpectedly, the Geneva International Motor Show Foundation announced at a press conference on July 1, Beijing time that it would cancel the 2021 Geneva International Motor Show. At the same time, the organizers are in talks with Switzerland's Palexpo to sell the rights to host the auto show for 15 million Swiss francs (about 110 million yuan).

Prior to this, due to the European epidemic, the Swiss government announced on February 28th that from now until March 15th, it would prohibit the organization of large-scale collective activities for more than 1,000 people. As a result, this year's Geneva Motor Show had no choice but to be forcibly canceled two days before its opening.

That is to say, the Geneva Motor Show will fade into the public eye for two consecutive years, which is undoubtedly a huge loss for the majority of car fans. For the industry, the Geneva Motor Show, known as the "wind vane of international automotive trends", will not be able to set the tone for the future development of the industry.

It is undeniable that this terrible news has stirred up the entire automotive world, and as a "centuries-old show" that originated in 1905 and was officially founded in 1924, the Geneva Motor Show has never experienced such an encounter during World War II. Of course, everyone is clear that the new crown pneumonia epidemic is the main reason for the Geneva Motor Show to stop, but behind this more thought-provoking is that in the international epidemic can not end in a short period of time under the environment, how to continue the show? Is the enthusiasm of car companies for the show decreasing?

How to "get along" with the epidemic?

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National Passenger Vehicle Federation, said, "The Geneva Motor Show has been suspended again mainly because of the impact of the epidemic. Secondly, the international auto show should consider how to get along with the epidemic in the next few years."

It can be seen that not only is the Geneva Motor Show canceled for the second consecutive year, trapped by the epidemic, the world's top auto shows almost all implicated.

On March 28, the Detroit Auto Show announced that it was officially canceled due to the epidemic. The TCF Center, where the event was held, was commandeered by FEMA and converted into a "square-bay hospital" where patients would be treated for the next six months.

And on the domestic front, there's still a question mark over whether the Beijing Auto Show will be able to go ahead in September because of the backlash from the epidemic.

In fact, as Cui Dongshu said, the problem facing the international auto show is not only whether it can be carried out smoothly, but also to consider how to "get along" with the epidemic for a period of time in the future. For this problem, just successfully concluded the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Auto Show is to the whole industry to play a sample.

This reporter learned from the official, all the exhibitors, must go through the temperature test, verification of the State Council trip code, check ID cards, face recognition and other anti-epidemic checks before opening the exhibition. At the same time, on-site exhibitors and car sales consultants are required to wear masks.

At the same time, the organizers also prepared 300,000 disposable medical masks and other anti-epidemic materials, each booth is equipped with a wash-free hand sanitizer, disposable gloves, etc., and arranged for regular disinfection of professional staff, security patrol, crowd diversion and other measures. It is also under such a strict epidemic prevention environment that the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Auto Show can be held successfully, and such a high standard and strict requirements of the epidemic prevention method also provides experience for future auto shows in the midst of epidemics.

Car companies to participate in the "enthusiasm" cut

Gaze back to the Geneva Motor Show, in the European region of the epidemic situation is still no significant improvement in the case of the organizers of the statistics, surveyed by the exhibitors are reluctant to participate in the Geneva Motor Show in 2021, they are more willing to show postponed to 2022, the show will be held. They preferred the show to be postponed to 2022. In other words, it seems that the car companies to participate in the auto show "enthusiasm" is decreasing.

Related industry experts said that the loss of enthusiasm for car companies, should be viewed from two aspects.

First, cut marketing costs. In May, for example, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), new car sales in the European passenger car market fell 56.8% year-on-year to 623,812 units from 1,444,173 units in the same period in 2019. Such a dilemma has to make car companies "tighten their pants" to face the difficulties, and the Geneva Motor Show as a top automotive event, manufacturers need to participate in the cost is a lot of money.

While there is no Geneva Motor Show specific recruitment cost details, but the cost of the 2017 Shanghai Auto Show in the invitation to view the cost of 4,200 square meters of booth rental costs and platform construction costs of about 20 million yuan, and this is only the initial booth expenses. For today's Geneva Motor Show, the recruitment costs will only be higher, such high expenses for the current European manufacturers do need to "think twice".

Second, online marketing. With the outbreak of the epidemic, not only domestic, global automakers will be the conference and other marketing work moved to online completion, this way to a certain extent affects the significance of the existence of the physical car show, so in the current environment, manufacturers may be more willing to choose the relatively small cost of online marketing methods.

Organizers in financial crisis

In addition to the force majeure of the epidemic and the manufacturers' interest in participating in the reduction, the Geneva Motor Show was called off with the organizers in financial crisis.

According to a previous official release, the cancelation of the Geneva Motor Show in March this year brought a loss of 11 million Swiss francs (about 81.71 million yuan). The Geneva Motor Show Foundation also planned to seek loan assistance of 16.8 million Swiss francs (about 124 million yuan) from the local government, of which 11 million Swiss francs were to be refunded to the car companies that had their shows canceled in March this year, and the rest could only be used to prepare for the show afterwards, but the huge loan amount and the interest that would be repaid at a later stage made them reject the loan.

As mentioned earlier, the Fondation Internationale de l'Automobile de Genève (FIA) is currently negotiating with Swiss company Palexpo to sell the right to host the show for 15 million Swiss francs (about 110 million yuan). And that price is much lower than PwC's estimate.

It is reported that Switzerland's Palexpo is actually the organizer of the show, and in recent years, the Geneva Motor Show has been held in the Palexpo exhibition hall, so Palexpo has become the "preferred buyer" of the show's hosting rights. Maurice Turrettini, chairman of the board of trustees of the Geneva International Motor Show Foundation, said the foundation would give priority to selling the hosting rights to Palexpo. However, it did not rule out the possibility of finding the next buyer or even relocating the show to another city if negotiations fail.

And Sandro?mesquita, director of the Geneva Motor Show, said externally, "If by September, a solution for the hosting rights is still not found, we will face the risk of liquidation and will have to sell assets?"

That is to say, the situation facing the Geneva Motor Show is not just the inability to organize for the second consecutive year, the financial predicament or will lead to the permanent closure of this historic automotive event.

This article was written by the author of Automobile House, and does not represent the viewpoint position of Automobile House.