Having just landed from the Geneva Motor Show, it would not be justifiable on my part not to convey to you some anxious impressions that directly reflect the moment in which we live so uncertain in the automotive industry.
We have to move to 1896 to the city of London, where the first Motor Show called Horseless Carriage Exhibition was held . Subsequently, the Paris Salon was born, a city that at that time no one doubted was the capital of the automobile.
Over the years, in the fifties, sixties and seventies, the celebration of these rooms became exhibitions of dreams where in countries like Spain having the economic capacity was not enough to be able to acquire them due to customs restrictions.
In the last two decades, the trade shows have been consolidated, first by continents and, after globalization, mainly by the old continent towards the rest of the markets in essential tools to show the adaptability of large groups to such heterogeneous demands according to the country of origin.
The Auto Show today
And up to here everything normal. But the present does not say the same. In recent years we have been experiencing how the salons have broadcast live the reality of an industry that struggles not to drown, marked with indelible wounds, like the skin of a whale over the years.
The leadership of the large automotive groups is directly proportional to the dominance of markets regardless of their position in the misshapen ball in which we all live together. And this leadership in recent years has encountered obstacles that, even having nothing to do with each other in many cases, together form a strong current.
The disappearance or not of the combustion engine, the consolidation or not of alternative technologies such as electricity and the opportunism of governments that, even having limited capacity for power for years, play to create government purposes of almost centuries and that are safe in their most will be on wet paper. Of course, creating negative economic results in an immediate way and being nothing more than a reflection of fear and uncertainty.
And the 2019 Geneva Motor Show has become a true advertising catalog of the industry emergency room.
Brands such as Ford, Volvo, Opel, Hyundai … this year they have decided not to attend for reasons that are most certainly more than justified but that, in my opinion, are missing at the most inopportune moment. Now is when manufacturers have to fight to give credibility to their new technologies and define their segments.
The narrow channel that is leading us to define ourselves by electrification (although the necessary infrastructure is not there or is expected) or the SUV bubble, (also condemned to the possible disappearance of the segment if the regulations continue to be more demanding every year) make it necessary be present in the classrooms showing a common force for coherence.
