The EV Next team had been to the Auto Expo 2020 at Noida. We spent two days scouring all the halls (there were 10+ halls) for the latest in autos and electric vehicles in particular.
And as a report in the Hindu BusinessLine says, the show overall was a bit underwhelming, especially compared to the Auto Expo 2018 show (which also we visited) where there was an air of positive energy.
This could be owing to bad news from two fronts. The first of course is the dismal showing by the Indian auto sector last one year owing to the poor overall economic growth. The second could be owing to the Coronovirus scare, which would have surely made the organizers wary of too many Chinese delegates and exhibition personnel at the venue (in fact, the EV Next team saw very few Chinese nationals at the venue, compared to the Auto Expo 2018 when they were present in plenty).
Some of the prominent companies that EV Next team expected to see but were not there included Toyota and TVS – both of which had taken up prominent positions in the previous version of the expo. While there were quite a few small exhibitors, even this number was far fewer than what it was for Auto Expo 2020.