2021 New York motor show cancelled

The 2021 New York motor show has been officially cancelled for the second year in a row, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The announcement comes just two weeks out from what would have been the show’s opening day on August 20 as the Big Apple continues to battle “growing incidences of the COVID-19 Delta variant”, said the show’s president Mark Schienberg in a statement.

“At the onset of planning for the August show, we were increasingly excited at the prospect of hosting the event as the number of vaccinations in New York continued to climb and mask-wearing reduced the spread in the city,” he said.

“All signs were positive, and the show was coming together stronger than ever, but today is a different story.

“The [COVID-19] pandemic has challenged our city, the country and the entire world, but just like the automobile industry, we know that the New York Auto Show will rebound and be bigger and better than before.”

New York’s growing number of COVID-19 cases have forced state and local officials to announce new safety measures, including proof of vaccination to attend indoor activities including restaurants in the city.

Last year, the 2020 NYIAS was postponed from April to August, before being cancelled altogether as the venue – Jacob K Javits Convention Centre – was turned into a makeshift hospital.

It joined a long list of cancelled motor shows in 2020, including Beijing, Geneva, Frankfurt, Detroit and Paris.

This year, it’s a similar story, with the Detroit show officially cancelled and set to be replaced by an outdoor show called Motor Bella in September, and the 2021 Geneva motor show also cancelled.

Elsewhere in the US, Auto Forum New York, which was scheduled for August 18, has also been cancelled.

At this stage, several other auto shows are still set to go ahead later this year, including the Munich motor show from September 7, the Los Angeles motor show in November and the Motor Bella show in Detroit next month.

The 2022 Geneva motor show next February and the 2022 Paris show next September are also set to go ahead at this stage, while it’s hoped the New York show will return to its regular spring schedule in April 2022.