The decreasing interest of automotive industry players into attending non essential shows might doom the show this year, as German manufacturers BMW, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen are rumored to have given up their intention to attend the Tokyo Show, Motor Authority reported.
By doing so, the German manufacturers will join other non-Japanese builders that announced they will skip the event. American builders General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were the first to let the world know they will not attend the October event.
Officially, JAMA says "couple of companies are not in favor of organizing the show under the current financial conditions," but one of its officials warned that if this happens, the next time Tokyo will host another event will be in 2011, due to scheduling agreements with other major auto events.
There is unrest all over this year's auto event calendar. In January, the Detroit Auto Show ran its course without Nissan, Suzuki, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Mitsubishi and Land Rover. The Barcelona Auto Show was first deemed cancelled, but managed to get saved by government intervention.
The Seoul Motor Show will open its doors without key players of the industry. GM, Chrysler and BMW will not go to Korea, as will Nissan and Volvo. The crisis managed even to steal an event from next year's calendar, as the British Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) decided to cancel the 2010 edition of the British International Motor Show due to the "unprecedented challenges facing the industry both in the UK and around the world".
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