Author: Zha Youyin

The west is dim, but the east shines.

On the afternoon of Children's Day, after hurriedly concluding the previous event in Qingdao, the author was invited to rush to Shenzhen. From the airport to the adjacent Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center, it was only a few stops away, but when I stepped out of the platform of the Shenzhen Metro Line 20 Guozhan Station, facing the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center, I felt a moment of confusion.

Photo | The Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center, which opened in November 2019, is a super exhibition building comparable in size and scale to the Shanghai National Convention and Exhibition Center.

This event, known as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Auto Expo, exceeded initial expectations in terms of scale...

Using eight exhibition halls and the Nandong conference area of the entire southern section of the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center, the total exhibition area reached 200,000 square meters. It gathered 107 complete vehicle brands, exhibiting a total of 1,036 models. Additionally, nearly a hundred parts and components companies attended, including well-known domestic and international Tier 1 companies such as Bosch, Magna, CATL, Horizon Robotics, and Black Sesame.

The "Future Auto Pioneer Conference" accompanying the auto show was also a gathering of essences, with the support of industry leaders from major automakers and related technology companies such as Lei Jun, Li Bin, Yu Chengdong, Liu Tao, Zhou Hongyi, and Zhu Jiangming, as well as experts and leaders from relevant ministries, universities, and fields delivering keynote speeches.

In terms of scale, grade, and the level of attendees, this Greater Bay Area Auto Show was almost on par with the 18th Beijing Auto Show that concluded a month earlier. And the on-site foot traffic was also formidable.

"Soon, there will be talk of 'five major auto shows' in China." Impressed by what I saw and heard at the scene, I posted such a status update on my WeChat Moments that afternoon. Then, within minutes, I received a plethora of likes and endorsements from media colleagues, automakers, and media friends.

Although from the perspective of domestic automakers and media, the currently booming Chinese auto market still has many issues and hidden worries, such as whether the overall market growth can continue this year, when the already intense price war and "internal competition" will end, and so on. However, at least one point is undeniable: China's automakers have gained an overall advantage in the new energy competition, and the domestic auto market is generally trending towards prosperity.

Photo | Taken on the afternoon of June 1st inside Hall 6 of the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center

With four major auto shows in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Huizhou, as well as numerous secondary auto shows such as Qilu and Chongqing, it is truly remarkable that this Greater Bay Area Auto Show, which originated from the regional Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao International Auto Show, could reach such a scale.

In stark contrast, traditional European and American auto shows have declined in recent years. Because just the next day (June 2nd) afternoon, while I was attending a sub-forum of the Future Auto Pioneer Conference, a news item popped up on my phone:

Due to "continuing industry competitive pressure," the 119-year-old Geneva Motor Show officially announced its closure.

01

The Decline of European and American Auto Shows

The Geneva International Motor Show originated from the "National Automobile and Bicycle" exhibition held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1905. By 1924, the exhibition had evolved into the only large-scale auto show in Europe that was held annually in March, and it was also the most important exhibition platform for major automakers to introduce new products for the first time.

Since Switzerland is located in the "neutral zone" between the established industrial countries of Germany, Italy, and France, even though the host country does not have its own automakers and vehicle brands, the Geneva Motor Show has still become an important stage for attracting automotive brands from neighboring countries to showcase their designs, technologies, technologies, and concept cars. Especially after the 1980s, the exhibition has actually become the second home for German automakers to showcase their cutting-edge automotive technologies overseas, apart from the Frankfurt Motor Show, their home turf.

Photo | Geneva Motor Show 2018. The Geneva Motor Show has always given the impression that it is not so crowded but relatively professional.

However, as the saying goes, times change. After entering the 2010s, with the gradual integration of automotive new energy and mobile internet technology, new-energy vehicles, powered by intelligent and connected technologies, began to rapidly develop in the direction of "a smartphone with four wheels." In contrast, European, especially German, established automakers, have made slow progress in the fields of new energy and intelligence, even showing signs of being complacent. The lag of automakers has inevitably affected the stage used for their exhibitions.

In contrast, the development of the consumer electronics industry has been rapid. Out of the pursuit of automotive intelligence and the idea of promoting exchanges with global ICT giants, since 2014, more and more automakers have begun to attend major global consumer electronics exhibitions.

Initially, what automakers displayed at consumer electronics exhibitions were only their latest in-car entertainment systems or new-generation cockpit displays. However, after 2016, various brands also began to bring their entire vehicles onto the exhibition stands.

Photo | Automotive products released at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the United States

By 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic dealt a heavy blow to European and American auto shows. The five major global auto shows were successively canceled. The Geneva Motor Show, which had already been in preparation for more than half of its duration, was also forced to be abruptly canceled just before the exhibition was to begin. It was then canceled for two years, only resuming in 2023, but the venue was transferred to Doha, Qatar. It was only planned to return to Geneva, Switzerland, this year.

In fact, the organizers of the auto show did not have high expectations for the show's return to Geneva. Not only was the exhibition period shortened to 7 days, but the expected number of visitors was only around 200,000, just 30% of its peak scale. A posture of not seeking merit but striving to maintain.

Photo | The 2023 Geneva Motor Show held in Dubai actually had one of the highest attendance figures in its history

However, unexpectedly, this auto show, which already had low expectations, encountered significant problems during the exhibitor recruitment phase.

As of the end of March this year, the number of companies announcing their participation hit a record low, with only twenty-odd companies in total. Among them, there were not even ten complete vehicle companies, and only a few well-known companies could be considered large enterprises, including SAIC Motor (reportedly bringing the MG and IM brands to the exhibition), BYD, Renault Group, and Isuzu. Additionally, an American newcomer Lucid indicated that it would participate, but the company is currently in financial trouble.

Whether it's Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, who have long considered this their second home in neighboring Germany, or the Stellantis Group, which fuses French and Italian bloodlines, or even large automakers from the United States, Japan, and South Korea, these regular participants of the Geneva Motor Show have not shown significant interest this time around. As for globally renowned parts and components giants, none of them have responded.

Given the harsh reality, it has become an inevitable result to discontinue this century-old exhibition. After all, in the post-pandemic era, it's not just the Geneva Motor Show that is declining.

Photo | The Detroit Auto Show (North American Auto Show), which has traditionally been held in January every year and was once considered the "opening act" of global auto shows, has also been struggling with various difficulties in recent years.

In Europe, the Paris Motor Show and the Frankfurt Motor Show are also facing similar difficulties, even though the latter has been moved to Munich last year in an attempt to attract more popularity by leveraging the home turf of Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

And in East Asia, the Tokyo Motor Show, which started in 1954, only managed to hold its 47th edition last year under the forced name change to "Japan Mobility Expo" and by bringing in many companies from the broader mobility sector to pad the numbers.

Photo | After bringing together various three-wheeled and two-wheeled vehicles, K-Cars, and even civil aircraft, the 2023 Japan Mobility Expo was finally held smoothly.

Overall, from North America to Europe to Japan, the traditional exhibition format of auto shows in the automotive industry is facing an inevitable decline worldwide.

Of course, while we used the term "worldwide" above, it does not represent the entire planet. After all, whether it's the recently concluded second Greater Bay Area Auto Show or the successfully held 18th Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in late April and early May, the auto show format is currently flourishing in China.

02

The Rise of Chinese Automobiles

The word "auto show" was once a formidable presence for me when I was young.

"Opening our eyes to the world" was a major theme that ran through domestic information dissemination throughout the 1980s and 1990s. As a concentrated embodiment of the advanced nature of the overseas world, major auto show events on various continents often took up important positions in television news during the 1980s and 1990s. As a result, even when I was very young, I had already recognized the locations of the five major global auto shows in Paris, Frankfurt, Geneva, Tokyo, and Detroit through watching television news.

Some highlights broadcast by domestic television news, such as Mitsubishi Motors' first-ever millimeter-wave radar technology introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1995 and Audi's new model with headlight steering function showcased at the Geneva Motor Show in 2003, are still vividly etched in my memory.

Photo | Geneva Motor Show 2007, when European and American auto shows were still at the end of their golden age and were far more enjoyable than they are now

At the same time, the four major domestic auto shows gradually took off from the mid-1980s to the beginning of this century, but initially, they could only serve as pure "porters" and automobile trade shows.

Many friends over 30 should still remember the complaints from domestic social media about auto shows a decade ago – whether to go to see cars or people? This refers to the lack of highlights at domestic auto shows, where automakers mainly participated to market and sell cars, so they hired a large number of car models with sexy and revealing outfits to attract audiences.

The history of Chinese auto shows is actually not very glorious. It has also left quite a few negative "famous scenes," such as the one below.

Photo | This is a shameful scene in the history of Chinese auto shows that should not be forgotten

This photo was taken in the afternoon of April 19, 2017, on the media open day of the 17th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition. The location was at the booth of Zotye Auto inside the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Qingpu, Shanghai.

This foreigner, whose eyebrows were screwed up into a knot, with a complex expression of doubt in life and despair written all over his face, was Oliver Blume, the then CEO of Porsche, who has since taken over as CEO of the Volkswagen Group.

The reason why Mr. Blume assumed this posture was entirely because he saw a car at Zotye's booth that, even if it cannot be said to be very similar to the Porsche Macan, could only be described as exactly the same, displayed there boldly.

In those days, after nearly two decades of洗礼 from the joint venture tide, the Chinese automotive industry had made significant progress in technology and craftsmanship, and domestic brands had actually gained considerable vehicle development capabilities. However, surrounded by overseas automotive giants and their domestic joint ventures, their brand value was not recognized by consumers, and they could not match overseas giants in many details and vehicle exterior designs.

This led some companies to choose the "shortcut" of being ridiculed as "copycats." In those days, in addition to the Zotye SR9, which copied the Macan as mentioned above, there was also the Jiangling LANDWIND, which copied the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque, and the BAIC BJ80, which was highly similar to the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. These three models were jokingly referred to as the three major copycat luxury cars.

But that is ultimately an embarrassing "past tense."

Because amid that chaos, new hope was already brewing – since 2010, the first batch of fruits of the new energy subsidy policy was about to bear fruit. And the market monopolized by the established automakers of Europe, the United States, and Japan was about to show the first cracks under the impact of new forces from China and the United States.

Photo | During the 20th Shanghai Auto Show in 2023, European automakers' executives came specifically to visit the Yangwang U8.

From the second half of 2017 to early 2019, the first-generation leading new forces, later known as "NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto," successively launched their initial models. Meanwhile, BYD, Changan, Geely, Chery, and Great Wall, known as the "Five Tigers of Autonomy," continued to advance along their technical routes developed so far, creating a new world in the fields of pure electric and hybrid vehicles. And all this ultimately led to a flourishing situation for China's new energy vehicles.

Especially in 2019, with the official launch of Tesla's wholly-owned Lingang superfactory and the groundbreaking of CATL's Thuringia plant in Germany, the Chinese automotive industry also ushered in a new era.

Due to the huge market formed by a sufficient number of people with considerable purchasing power, coupled with a complete and dense upstream industrial chain, the Chinese auto market has recovered growth globally in the post-pandemic era and continued to surge, reaching a scale of 30 million vehicles in 2023.