Shanghai, China — The 15th edition of Automechanika Shanghai saw its grand opening on Tuesday, where 6,590 exhibitors from 46 countries will gather throughout the week to network, learn about new product technology and witness the Chinese round of Automechanika’s Body and Paint World Championship.
This year, the event will be held from Dec. 3 through Dec. 6 at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre in Shanghai, China—which boasts roughly 360,000 square metres of exhibition space. With its events and programming, the show aims to embrace both rising technology and industry connectivity while highlighting specific products in the fields of electric vehicles, ADAS systems, 5G and AI applications, car connectivity, mobile services and lightweight materials.
This year, Automechanika Shanghai has reinforced its repair and maintenance area, which now occupies an extra 21 percent of space on the show floor—some 63,000 square metres.
On Tuesday, Automechanika Shanghai hosted the ‘Tomorrow’s Service and Mobility Summit’, entitled ‘Moving forward to 2020: a dialogue with OEMs to find mutual goals’. The day-long presentation focused on the technological development and related policies and regulations surrounding car connectivity and data sharing in China and featured senior executive speakers from the automotive sector, including representatives from China Automotive Technology Research Centre, Geely Automobile Research Institute, Bosch Automotive Products (Suzhou) and Valeo Group China.
Automechanika Shanghai will host 65 events, summits and presentations running concurrently with the show, including the Shanghai round of Automechanika’s Body and Paint World Championships.
In China, four candidates will go head-to-head to decorate a hood inspired by the respective host country of the Automechanika competition.
As design ideas were submitted for the competition, hoods were dominated by a single colour—red—to reflect the 70th anniversary of the violent overthrow of the democratic Republic of China at the hands of communist revolutionaries.
Painter Wen Jie Min has said he aims to showcase ‘Chinese red culture’ in his design, while BASF China’s candidate Ian Lai says his design attempts to capture the essence of Chinese culture, incorporating elements of martial arts and ink brush strokes.
Previous heats have been held in the United Kingdom and South Africa. After the Shanghai round, two locations remain: Dubai, United Arab Emirates from June 7 to June 9, 2020; and Mexico City, Mexico from July 22 to July 24, 2020.
The final competition will be held in Frankfurt, Germany from Sept. 8 to Sept. 12, 2020.
