Coronavirus: launches, shows and motorsport update

In addition to unprecedented crowd restrictions, travel bans and quarantine measures, the COVID-19 Coronavirus is severely impacting the global automotive industry.

Car-making has completely ceased in Italy amid the country-wide lockdown, remains limited in China and faces serious interruptions in the US.

The majority of international and national motorsport events including Formula 1 and Supercars has been axed until May, and both global and local car launches are being cancelled or postponed.

Here’s the latest on the situation.

All upcoming local and global car launches have either been cancelled, postponed or modified, including this week’s Audi A3 Sportback and Porsche 911 Turbo S international launches.

Local cancellations include Australian launches for the Lexus LC Convertible, Ford Fiesta ST, Audi Q7 and Q3 Sportback and the Maserati Levante GTS and Trofeo later this month.

In April, the local Mercedes-AMG A4 5 launch will also go ahead with modifications, but the global Ferrari SF90 launch has been cancelled and Mazda Australia has cancelled its launch of the updated CX-5 in favour of individual media drives.

Also in doubt for April are the Land Rover Defender global launch in the UK, the Aston Martin DBX and Vantage Roadster global launch in the US and the Skoda Scala local launch in Sydney.

New models scheduled for local launch in May but now under a cloud include the Audi SQ8, Ford Focus ST, Mercedes-Benz GLA, Skoda 140TSI Sportline, Toyota Yaris and Volkswagen T-Cross and T-Roc.

The most recent motor show to be cancelled was the New York International Auto Show from April 9, when the Genesis G80, Kia Carnival and Volkswagen ID.4 were supposed to make their world debuts. Show organisers now hope to hold the event in late August.

The 2020 Beijing show (April 21) was canned the day before the Geneva show was due to open on March 3, when global public premieres had been planned for the Audi A3, Bentley Bacalar, BMW Concept i4, Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport, Czinger 21C, Hyundai i20 and Prophecy, Porsche 911 Turbo S, McLaren 765LT, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Pagani Imola, Polestar Precept, Renault Morphoz, Skoda Octavia RS iV and Volkswagen Golf GTI.

The next international motor show – Detroit’s North American International Auto Show – has already been pushed back from its traditional January date to June 7, when the born-again Ford bronco was expected to debut.

The future of that event – as well as the Paris motor show in October, the Los Angeles show in November and even the Olympic Games in Tokyo in July, when a Toyota flying car may have lit the Olympic flame -- remain unknown.

All international motorsport is on hold until at least May, following the cancellation of the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix and the running of a shortened Rally of Mexico on the weekend.

Closer to home, the opening round of the carsales TCR Australia Series at Sydney Motorsport Park and the Australian Superbike Championship at Wakefield Park on March 27-29 are up in the air, as is the Supercar series’ Tasmania Super400 at Symmons Plains over April 3-5.

Ferrari joined the rest of the auto-making industry in Italy, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe, by announcing on Saturday that will cease all manufacturing immediately.

In the prancing horse brand’s case, both Ferrari factories Will close until at least March 27 following an emerging shortage of parts and a complete government-enforced lockdown in Italy.

Ferrari is nestled in Maranello, just 20km from the Coronavirus hotspot of Modena, where its second factory is located, in Italy’s north.

Ferrari’s move echoes that of fellow Italian supercar maker Lamborghini, which has shut down its production for at least two weeks in a bid to protect its workers from the COVID-19 virus.

Based in Sant’Agata Bolognese, between Bologna and Modena, Lamborghini will close its plant until at least March 25.

It does not have a second plant in another country, so the shutdown will halt production of all Lamborghini products, just as the Urus SUV was generating momentum for the brand.

In some ways the factory closure won’t hurt Lamborghini, whose second largest market is China, where overall vehicle sales collapsed by 79 per cent in February.

Last week Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, whose brands include Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Lancia, closed the last of its four plants in Italy last Wednesday.

Italy has the largest number of coronavirus infections outside China, with more than 15,000 confirmed cases and more than 1200 deaths.

The nation of 60 million is effectively closed and the lockdown has led to parts shortages from suppliers including Brembo and Pirelli. All Italian car-maker have banned visitors from their sites.

Italian PM Giuseppe Conte last week ordered the closure of all shops and bars, with only pharmacies, post offices and selected news agencies and supermarkets remaining open.

Schools and universities have been closed for three weeks and that decision isn’t due to be revised until April 3, at the earliest. The only shops that remain open are pharmacies and supermarkets.

New vehicle sales plummeted in Italy in February and will be off at least 25 per cent in March, according to industry sources, though they warn it could be considerably higher.

The difficulty for new-car dealers is twofold. Firstly, their own staff have been mostly sent home and secondly, the government enacted a rule that people must have a “situazioni di necessita” to leave their homes. Under this rule the only legal way to buy a car would be to replace a crashed or stolen one.

While most dealerships are moving to close down their showrooms, their service centres are remaining open with skeleton staff to maintain ambulances and the cars of critical health workers.

Elsewhere in Europe, countries including Belgium, France and Ireland are just starting to introduce measures as strict as Italy’s, but the car-making engine rooms of Germany have not reported any production slowdowns related to the virus.

Opel, based in Russelsheim, near Frankfurt and owned by France’s PSA Group, has reported its first case of a production line worker with the virus.

In China, all non-essential factories in Wuhan, the city at the centre of the Coronavirus outbreak China, remain locked down until at least Wednesday this week. Wuhan is home to hundreds of auto component suppliers and accounts for almost 10 per cent of Chinese vehicle production.

Finally in the US, COVID-19 fears have idled an FCA plant and all of the Big Three have banned travel for white-collar workers, but most factories and dealerships remain open for business for the time being.