New York motor show cancelled

The modern motor show is taking a pummeling in 2020 as the coronavirus (COVID-19) claims another big-budget event, this time the New York motor show.

Originally slated to kick off on April 10, the 2020 New York motor show will now take place in late August.

It’s not clear if car makers will hold off revealing their new cars until the August show.

So far just under 1000 people in the USA have contracted COVID-19, resulting in 28 deaths.

Opinion: Motor shows are dead

According to the group, the New York motor show generates around $US330 million in economic benefits to the region, with trickle-down effects for hotels and restaurants via the influx of show-goers – in the hundreds of thousands according to NY auto show officials.

"For 120 years, ‘the show must go on’ has been heavily embedded in our DNA, and while the decision to move the show dates didn’t come easy, our top priority remains with the health and well-being of all those involved in this historic event," said Mark Schienberg, president of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, the organisation that runs the New York Auto Show.

Some automotive events, such as the recent Geneva motor show, were axed outright but organisers in the Big Apple have rescheduled the event to late August, 2020, in the hope that COVID-19's effects will have subsided.

"We have already been in communication with many of our exhibitors and partners and are confident that the new dates for the 2020 Show will make for another successful event," Schienberg said.

The Beijing motor show has also been cancelled as the Chinese new car market - the world's biggest - continues to haemorrhage, with sales down by 80 per cent.