As AutoChina gets underway in Beijing (first press day 26 September), the auto industry globally will be watching;

David Leggett, Automotive Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view: 

“This year’s AutoChina show, postponed from March, will be unlike any other. It comes with social distancing, health checks and quarantines for foreign visitors, as well as limitations on numbers attending. Nevertheless, it is the first major global motor show to take place since the pandemic struck.

“As such, it offers hope to a global automotive industry that has been rocked this year by vehicle markets decimated by population lockdowns.

“China’s vehicle market and industry were first into the crisis and are also the first out of it.

“GlobalData forecasts that the Chinese light vehicle market this year will turn out just 8.7% down on the previous year at around 22.5 million units. That compares with a global light vehicle market forecast to be down this year by 16.6% at 74.2 million units.

“As the world’s largest vehicle market, China’s importance to automotive companies across the world can’t be understated. This year the show in Beijing has added symbolic significance as the industry across the world eyes a gradual recovery of vehicle demand and production over the next eighteen months.”