China opens auto show under anti-disease controls

BEIJING (AP) — Ford, Nissan and BMW unveiled electric models with more range for China on Saturday as the Beijing auto show opened under anti-virus controls that included holding news conferences by international video link.

Automakers are looking to China, the first major economy to start recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, to drive sales growth and reverse multibillion-dollar losses.

Auto China 2020, postponed from March, is the first major trade show for any industry since the pandemic began. The ruling Communist Party’s decision to go ahead with it reflects official confidence China, where the pandemic began in December, has the disease under control.

“The 2020 Beijing motor show is a symbol of hope,” BMW AG’s China CEO, Jochen Goller, told reporters who wore masks but stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the event. He paid tribute to Chinese medical workers who “made it possible for us to enjoy this large-scale event today.”

Authorities ordered limits on crowds at the event, which attracted 820,000 visitors at its last installment in 2018. Employees walked through the cavernous exhibition center carrying signs that said, “Be Sure to Wear Masks.”

China’s auto market, the world’s biggest, already has rebounded to sales above pre-pandemic levels. Purchases rose 6% in August compared with a year earlier, while U.S. sales were down 9.5%.

Global and Chinese automakers displayed dozens of electric models, part of a race by the industry to meet Chinese government sales quotas imposed to promote the technology.

Electrics increasingly offer speeds and acceleration to rival gasoline engines in an effort to make the technology a mainstream product. Some promise ranges of up to 600 kilometers (380 miles), or more than the average tank of gasoline, to...