The Beijing motor show, which was set to take place this month, will now be held from September 26 to October 5, 2020.

The event was scheduled to kick off on April 21, but, like many other motor shows, including Detroit, Paris, New York and the Goodwood Festival of Speed was postponed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The show was the first international motoring event of its type to be postponed, before Geneva was cancelled at the last minute. At the time, Beijing had a disinfection drive going on in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus.

The show's postponement is a blow to a Chinese car industry that's struggling to recover from two successive market drops in 2018 and 2019.

China remains the world’s biggest market for new cars, with 22.3 million registered last year. Until 2018, it had enjoyed 20 years of unparalleled growth since the last decline in 1997.

The Beijing and Shanghai motor shows have both expanded to become internationally significant, and they alternate on the calendar. Beijing receives around 8,00,000 visitors each year – about 5,500 of them from overseas – and hosts around 1,200 exhibitors from 14 regions.