Geneva motor show: Mechanics gear up for revolution

Not all of 700,000 visitors to Geneva’s International Motor Show are there for the fancy cars. The Swiss automotive industry includes some 20,000 companies employing ten times as many people, among them many mechanics, and they’re at the show to find out how best to serve their clients.

Visitors will struggle to find Swiss-manufactured cars among the glittering premiers on show. But swissinfo.ch found two Swiss productions, both from canton Zurich: the ‘Microlino’External link, a small, front-opening electric car that can plug into normal domestic sockets. It’s a Swiss idea but the cars are produced in Italy.

Then there’s the latest concept vehicle developed by Rinspeed.External link The autonomous ‘Snap’ vehicle has a chassis called a skateboard, on top of which sits a ‘pod’ that can be used as a stationary or mobile unit for camping, conferences or normal travel.

Shopping for ‘accessories’

Not far away in a different hall at the show, Swiss people who work in the auto industry will find everything they need to service the new cars coming off the production lines, many of them with parking radars built into the windscreens, LED lights and self-driving capabilities. New developments in car design require a sizeable investment by Swiss garages in the state-of-the-art equipment needed to maintain them.