OPINION: Motor Shows - A Thing Of The Past?

If 2020 has taught us anything, it has to be that the most of our interactions from hereon will primarily take place in the virtual arena. While they will never be able to fully replicate the human connection that takes place during personal interactions or at live events, they are major time savers and the econo-friendly option in these cash strapped times.

This does not bode well then for motor shows.

Yep, the annual galas that are held in prestigious cities around the world where two- and four-wheeler manufacturers showcase their future models and outstanding achievements. Geneva, Milan, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Cologne, New Delhi -- the prestigious motor shows held in these cities might see a dramatic change in the coming few years, with manufacturers seemingly pulling out of the events indefinitely. But is it all due to COVID-19? Or were there cracks appearing in the wall even before that?

Why Motor Shows Got Us Excited?
One of my distinct memories of my pre-teenager years were the hundreds of thick physical press kits that my dad used to bring home from the motor shows that he had just visited. These usually had a compact disc (remember those?) or a DVD containing hi-res imagery that he would need for his publication to use. These physical brochures also gave you great insight into what the automaker had planned for the upcoming model year. The reason why I am mentioning this is because the time taken for this information transfer from the automaker making the announcement at a foreign show to the masses would usually involve more than a couple of weeks.

Technology has come a long way in improving communications since then, speeding up the process. Hence, when KTM didn’t ride in the 390 Adventure at EICMA 2018 or when it actually did in 2019, we got that information within seconds. While the information exchange shifted from physical dockets to digital ones, there was still the allure of new and exciting automobiles that drew us to these shows.

Even India’s motor show, Auto Expo, has seen crowds thronging Pragati Maidan in Delhi initially and India Expo Mart in Greater Noida in recent editions. The last Expo, that literally took place 12 months ago, saw phenomenal crowds attending it.

And it is not only the autos that draw the crowds to these shows. It is celebs too. Sachin Tendulkar, Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan, John Abraham and Amitabh Bachchan are just some of the illustrious celebrities that take centre stage at brand pavilions. And how can we forget the frenzy when Valentino Rossi turned up to launch the Yamaha YZF-R15 at Auto Expo 2008.

Even manufacturers globally make sure that they bring along their motorsport heroes to show off their latest creations. Fernando Alonso, Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso, Michael Schumacher and Marc Coma are just some of the incredible motorsport athletes to unveil new creations for the manufacturers they have contracts with.

Enter COVID-19
It is quite surprising that Auto Expo 2020 took place at a time when there was a new seemingly-deadly virus outbreak in China. It was more shocking that the event went off smoothly without any troubles because one of the new entrants at the show was China’s Great Wall Motors. Obviously, its Chinese delegates didn’t appear at the event but it took place with everyone quite uncertain of what was going to happen.

Soon after, the outbreak became a global pandemic and life as we knew it came to a grinding halt. Aside from the main struggles that human existence faced, the global auto industry was hit badly. With economies crashing and no clear signs of how and when life would get back to being normal, which it still isn’t, thinking about automobiles was going to be one of the lowest things on anybody’s agenda.

With the global economy affected, manufacturers had to come up with ideas on where it could cut its spending on. Logically, motor shows thus made no sense. Even if say there was a cure to the deadly virus by September 2020 and EICMA 2020 did go ahead, we doubt that manufacturers would have invested in what would be termed as frivolous spending.

New EU5 & BS6 Emissions
Also, when it was deemed fit that companies could resume operations in limited capacity, our automakers were facing another tough task that they had to overcome: BS6 emission norms adherence. Had COVID-19 not struck, manufacturers would have had the liberty to sell their BS4 stock until 31 March 2020. But we went into lockdown in mid-March, with loads of BS4 inventory still unsold and most purchases still in limbo due to various causes like registration hold-ups, loan approvals and so on. So, whatever money that these automobile manufacturers, especially the two-wheeler ones, had predicted they would have made from these sales, and the sales in the subsequently non-fruitful months, affected them adversely. Salaries and jobs were impacted.

The investment for expensive materials to be used in catalytic converters to make vehicles BS6-compliant was another major expense that the manufacturers had to bear in these trying times. That’s why you would see multiple price hikes each manufacturer would be carrying out every other month.

Writing On The Wall
One cannot blame COVID-19 entirely though. Bajaj Auto stopped making an appearance at Auto Expos well before, its last one being in 2014. We have seen a steady decrease of manufacturers turning up over the past few editions. And it seems 2020 was somewhat the final nail in the coffin for the majority of manufacturers. Honda, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Jeep, Audi, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo and Lexus gave it a miss. And so did Hero MotoCorp, TVS, Yamaha, Kawasaki, KTM, Triumph, Harley-Davidson, and Ducati. The reason? Money!

In 2016, Rajiv Bajaj had cited that it was too much of an investment to be part of an Auto Expo. While he was scoffed at at first, this did in fact turn out to be true. Manufacturers were finding it difficult to make a good case for participating in Auto Expo, especially when one had to shell out an incredible amount of money to share the limelight with other brands.

Even before Wuhan became the epicentre of the pandemic, Tata Motors announced that it would be sitting out of the Geneva Motor Show from 2020 onwards. While it was never really a big player in Europe, Geneva allowed Tata to showcase products like the Indica, Aria Coupe, Hexa, Altroz and the Buzzard (the first name given to the new Safari) to the world. It showcased Indian engineering and talent to the global audience.

#GharSeEICMA
With events like Geneva and EICMA not taking place due to the obvious reasons, manufacturers took to the internet to announce their 2021 portfolio. And these weren’t done all in one shot but about the same time that these events usually take place. Ducati took the weekly sitcom releasing approach to announce its 2021 range that includes the Multistrada V4, Monster and SuperSport 950 among others.

KTM and Triumph spread their product announcements over weeks, with the likes of the 890 Duke and Speed Triple 1200 RS being brought out as late as January 2021. Harley-Davidson will finally start offering the Pan America 1250 to global audiences from this month onwards. And we did get the third generation Suzuki Hayabusa, which turned out to be more of an evolution than a revolution, this past week.

Domestically, we have had pretty dramatic launches that have taken place virtually. Shooting a proper launch video makes for better monetary sense too.

Will Motor Shows Become Unnecessary?
I hope not. Like I mentioned at the start, the allure of seeing new motorcycles and cars up close is still very satisfying. It is something that no amount of fantastically-produced tightly-packaged videos will ever do the trick.

But I do realise the monetary reasons behind manufacturers pulling out. And that is where organisers might have to rethink their approach here. Lowering costs is a given but what other innovative ideas can we expect to see in the future to not have a repeat of Auto Expo 2020 again?