Geneva Motor Show cancelled over coronavirus fears (UPDATE)

UPDATE: Feb. 28, 2020, 12:36 p.m. CET The Geneva International Motor Show has officially been cancelled. The article has been updated throughout to reflect this.

Geneva International Motor Show, scheduled to take place in Geneva from March 5-15, is one of the most important annual events in the automotive industry. This year, however, it's been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

On Friday, Switzerland's Federal Council banned large-scale events, defined as "events involving more than 1000 people." The ban is effective immediately and it applies "at least until March 15."

Geneva Motor Show being a massive event, with more than 690,000 people in attendance in 2017 and 660,000 in 2018, it definitely falls into this criteria. We've reached out to the show's organizers and will update this article when we hear back.

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"The 90th edition of the GIMS, which was supposed to welcome the media from next Monday and the general public from 5 to 15 March 2020, will now finally not take place. This is an injonction decision of the Federal Council of 28 February 2020 that no events with more than 1,000 people are allowed to take place until 15 March 2020. The decision falls 3 days before the opening of the exhibition to the media,"the show's organizers said in a notice on the official website.

"The Federal Council is aware that this measure will have a significant impact on public life in Switzerland. However, the move is expected to provide effective protection to people in Switzerland and to public health. It should prevent or delay the spread of the disease in Switzerland, thus reducing its momentum," the Federal Council said in a statement.

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Nearly all major car makers have had a scheduled appearance at this year's Geneva Motor Show, including BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo, to name a few. The cancellation will undoubtedly make a big impact in these companies' plans, though we're likely to see many of the novelties planned for the show announced via online channels.

Geneva Motor Show's cancellation follows that of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which was due in late February but was cancelled due to coronavirus concerns.