The change in location and lacklustre show has resulted in growing disinterest. “The main deliverables are to get coverage and quality crowds. At a time when the market has yet to recover to 2018 levels, participating in the show could be deemed as an unnecessary expenditure,' said Avik Chattopadhyay, co-founder, Expereal, a brand strategy consultancy firm. “The money an automaker spends in the auto expo could be used in a nation-wide consumer connect programme, which might give better dividends in the long run. For companies that are not very profitable or do not have an exciting array of vehicles to show, it may not make sense to participate. Effectively, companies end up spending anywhere between ₹10 crore and ₹30 crore for the week-long event-on concept vehicles, manpower, logistics, shows. In the pre-pandemic era, this compared favourably with Paris, Frankfurt and Geneva, while Tokyo and Shanghai were a tad more expensive.īut space rental is only a fraction of the cost. A large pavilion, of over 4,000 square metre, would cost ₹3.6 crore. The average rack rate per square metre of space for the Indian expo is around ₹9,000. Participating in any global automotive exhibition is costly. The Geneva Motor Show has been cancelled this year for the fourth year in a row, while the Frankfurt Motor Show rode into the sunset even before the pandemic in 2019.Īll this begs the question: is the old format of on-ground exhibitions obsolete in today’s social media fuelled age of instant gratification? If so, is there a way for the expo in India to change and make itself more relevant? The Paris Motor Show, the following month, was also suitably slimmed down. The Detroit Motor Show in the US, in September 2022, was a pale shadow of its glorious past as only three major automakers showed up. It is not a problem that is peculiar to India-expos around the world are struggling. Like BMW, most of them are curating events of their own, focused on their target audience. What explains the growing non interest from the industry? The absentee parties complain of high cost and of not getting enough bang for their buck. Though the show saw the debut of more than a dozen companies-mostly electric two-wheeler startups- the big guns like Ola Electric, Ather Energy, Hero Electric or Okinawa chose to sit out. Players in the passenger vehicle industry have routinely given the expo a miss but a big shocker this year was desi favorite Mahindra and Mahindra joining the likes of the entire Volkswagen group (VW, Skoda and Audi), Honda, Renault-Nissan and Stellantis (Jeep and Citroen), in watching the show from the sidelines.Įven the fast-emerging electric vehicle industry, which was expected to make up for some of the abstentions, did not really join the party. Pushed back by a year due to the pandemic, the 16th edition of the expo saw a no-show by almost the entire domestic two-wheeler industry, besides luxury car makers. Once touted as the biggest automotive show on the globe, the expo is facing an existential crisis and the list of absentees this year was particularly long. It is about being focused and not mass reach for us.'īMW wasn’t the only major company to skip the expo. “It is not because of money but the qualitative aspect of it. With our own events like Joytown, there was no added benefit for us to be at the expo this year,' Pawah said. “We make the decision (to participate or not) on a case-by-case basis. For the second straight edition, BMW gave a miss to the biennial Indian Auto Expo-the motor show concluded on Wednesday. And in the last weekend of January, BMW will host a similar event in Bengaluru.Īll of this came at a cost, though. New nano-urea plants will offset burden of mounting subsidyĪ month later, the company repeated the event in Mumbai with a different theme and new products. Why India needs a fresh fertilizer policy

How covid hit basic reading and maths skillsĮlectric price war erupts as Tata, M&M fight for SUV edge Then, within the event, there are zones for our existing or prospective customers.' The response has been such that we wish to make it an annual gig,' said Vikram Pawah, president and CEO, BMW Group India. “It is a mega event that is focused not on products but on better engagement with our customers.

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