Paris Auto Show Falls Victim to Coronavirus

Despite its relatively faraway late-September date, organizers behind the Paris Motor Show say the show cannot go on in its current form.

The “seriousness of the unprecedented health crisis” facing both the world and the show means the event, slated to kick off at the city’s Porte de Versailles on September 29th will pare back several elements. However, depending on how the coronavirus pandemic plays out, some satellite events could still go ahead.

“The Movin’On, Smart City and out-of-town events are not, for the moment, in question,” the organizers said in a Monday statement, referring to some elements of the broader Paris Motion Festival.

“We study all the alternative solutions in close collaboration with our main partners. The profound reinvention of the event that we initiated, with in particular a festival dimension around innovative mobility, but also a strong [business to business] component, could offer the opportunity.”

One thing that’s definitely off the table is a convention hall filled with people, cars, and OEM employees.

“Nothing will be like before, and this crisis must teach us to be agile, creative and more innovative than ever,” the organizers said.

Thus far, the Paris show is the latest cancellation (quasi-cancellation in this case) announced in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. Early March’s Geneva Motor Show was first to fall, followed soon after by April’s New York International Auto Show. Originally scheduled to open in a week’s time (and since postponed to late August), the NYC event has since seen its venue turned into a field hospital.

With other field hospitals under construction in Central Park and a U.S. Navy hospital ship mooring off Manhattan Monday morning, one wonders if that event’s organizers were a little too optimistic in their rescheduling.

Elsewhere, this past weekend saw organizers behind the North American International Auto Show in Detroit announce the cancellation of this year’s inaugural June event.

Maybe the Paris show organizers are foretelling the future in claiming nothing will ever be the same again — at least regarding the importance of big, splash trade shows like these.

[Image: Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung]