The shadow of the epidemic enveloped the Geneva Motor Show: Is the Cloud Age Motor Show still necessary?

The local market is depressed, the flow of people is declining, and the cost is high, which only left a glorious historical position for the Geneva Motor Show.

Wen Hao Ott is driving? Wang shuoqi

The epidemic in China is easing, but with the increase of confirmed cases in Italy and Iran, the whole of Europe has become nervous.

For fear of the novel coronavirus epidemic, the organizers have announced the postponement of the China auto china, which was originally scheduled to open in April.

Although there is no case in Switzerland where Geneva is located, many media recently reported that the annual Geneva Motor Show in March will be cancelled.

However, a spokesman for the Geneva Motor Show on February 24th (yesterday) said that the Geneva Motor Show would still be held as scheduled on March 2nd, adding that the senior management of the exhibition was "observing the situation and its possible impact on employees, exhibitors and visitors".

The spokesman said that as part of the "Hygiene Code of Conduct", the Geneva Motor Show will take a series of preventive measures to ensure the health of visitors, including several cleaning and disinfection steps and a publicity campaign.

According to the media planning to go to the scene, the auto show officials encouraged the participants to pass the necessary inspection 14 days before arriving in Switzerland, and Ctrip also responded that no China people had successfully booked a hotel.

Up to now, according to the report of GlobalData, a data analysis company, at least 13 large automobile manufacturers have withdrawn from the Geneva Motor Show, including Cadillac, Citroen, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Lamborghini, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot, Subaru, Tata and Volvo.

The absence of these brands undoubtedly lowered the status of the Geneva Motor Show. Judging from the known news, there are very few traditional heavy-duty models of participating brands, and most of them are concentrated in performance cars and new energy products.

Judging from the current news, among the heavy models, Mercedes-Benz has changed the front face and interior, and the new Audi A3, but A3 is still in a highly confidential state. According to foreign media reports, the new A3 and Golf 8*** enjoy many technologies, such as adaptive damping variable suspension technology, gradual steering technology and quattro? Drive timely four-wheel drive technology and upgraded driving mode and ESC mode have obviously improved dynamic comfort and safety in theory.

Toyota released a brand-new small SUV, based on the brand-new yaris TNGA-B platform. At present, there are only two previews, one is the outline draft and the other is the tail preview. From the outline, the new car is more practical than the current C-HR or Yize, and the roof is not so low.

Performance cars, including Porsche? 9 1 1? Turbocharged? S, brand-new golf GTI, Renault Megane and other models, but the specific parameters and technical indicators have not yet been announced.

The number of new energy vehicles far exceeds that of traditional vehicles, such as Skoda Ming Rui RS? Four. Aichi U5 European Edition, Lexus UX? 300e, Mercedes-Benz CLA? PHEV、GLA？ PHEV, Mercedes-Benz E-Class? PHEV and other models, but the technical level of most products still lacks revolutionary highlights.

BMW is even more worth mentioning. According to official data, at the 2020 Geneva International Auto Show, BMW presented four new plug-in hybrid vehicles with high-end and mid-range cars. Since the summer of 2020, BMW? Other models of the 3 Series will provide efficient driving pleasure.

In other words, it has been confirmed that the BMW 3 Series will introduce a hybrid system, but it is not known whether it will be introduced domestically. According to the official pictures, the other three hybrid models are probably SUVs, and the body shape seems to be a derivative version of X3 and X5.

In addition, at the Geneva Motor Show, Polaris brand will also exhibit the concept car Polaris Precept, which was just released online on February 25th (today).

This model represents a brand-new design language of the brand and is the direction of Polaris' future products. According to the official introduction, Polar Star Precept shows the minimalist aesthetic design tone of Polar Star's future models. The new car has the unique low-profile body and contour of GT car and a long wheelbase of 3. 1 meter, which can create more head and leg space while accommodating a larger battery pack.

At the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, the Polaris amulet will also be the first truly public-oriented car.

In addition to international brands, domestic brands besides Aichi, Changan also participated in the auto show.

Not long ago, the official map of Changan UNI-T, a brand-new coupe SUV, was officially released. The appearance of the Geneva Motor Show is enough to show that Changan attaches importance to this new car. Different from the existing CS series models, the new car adopts a brand-new design language, which is expected to win the favor of more young consumers.

Judging from the market positioning of the new car, it is expected to cooperate with Link 02 and GAC Chuanqi's second-generation GS4 after listing in the future. COUPE competes directly, and the price is expected to be more advantageous than competitors, or around 654.38+10,000 yuan. It can be predicted that the arrival of the new car will bring good market increment to Chang 'an.

Therefore, judging comprehensively, compared with the glorious history of the Geneva Motor Show, the number of models exhibited this time is less than that of traditional cars, and new energy is still the focus, but there is still no big breakthrough. The emergence of a number of performance cars seems to indicate that the internal combustion engine continues to live, and the gold content of the Geneva Motor Show, the organizer, is further reduced.

Geneva Motor Show was founded in 1924? In 2006, it was the only large-scale auto show held every year in Europe. Held in March every year, it is the most important exhibition platform for major automobile manufacturers to launch new products for the first time, and is known as the "international automobile trend vane".

However, since last year, signs of economic recession have appeared. On the eve of the 20 19 Geneva Motor Show, Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Volvo announced that they would not participate in the auto show, while the 20 19 Geneva Motor Show attracted about 500,000 spectators, down about 20% year-on-year.

Although it is known as the first auto show in Europe, Geneva, as the host city, is also affected by the sluggish car sales in Europe for many years. In addition, the holding cost of some large-scale auto shows is also very expensive, and the competition of established "first-line" auto shows such as Geneva, Paris, Frankfurt, Detroit and Tokyo is becoming increasingly fierce.

In contrast, auto shows in emerging markets are regarded as a more forward-looking industry vane, because the ultimate goal of auto shows is to sell cars in addition to showing the endless technological development in the industry. Obviously, the consumption power of Europe is far less than that of China-dominated emerging countries.

However, some weak brands are often drowned in the noise of a hundred flowers at the auto show. After Ford withdrew from the Geneva Motor Show last year, the person in charge of communication said that they thought it was a better way to attract the attention of potential customers than being caught in the news noise at the auto show.

Global? The data also believes that companies such as Ford have re-examined their marketing budgets and strategies and are more inclined to participate in exhibitions focusing on market segments. Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other brands have previously announced that they will no longer attend the new york Auto Show in April.

In addition, live media and online websites have also brought a big impact to the auto show. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, domestic heavy-duty models, including Geely ICON and Chery's new generation Tiggo 7, which were originally scheduled to debut in February, all announced that they would postpone the listing and change the press conference from offline to online; Car dealers who have closed their doors have also started live broadcast activities such as watching cars and buying cars online. Although it is forced by the situation, it seems that people have seen the dawn of the online auto show.

Large-scale auto shows will not suddenly disappear in one day, but the role played by large-scale auto shows is being diverted and replaced by other channels.

The fall from grace in Geneva is just a symptom, which means that the traditional auto show is going downhill. Independent press conferences with higher cost performance and even online press conferences are more valued by brands.

If the benefits brought by the auto show gradually fade away, it will inevitably be accompanied by a trend of low cost performance and declining influence. If we don't change this trend, it will be a vicious circle until death, but there will still be something new to replace it. Don't forget that we live in an era of change.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.