The absence of the 159-year-old German brand, along with Stellantis siblings Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Fiat, Jeep and Peugeot, from the country's biggest auto show hurts organizers trying to revamp the event.

The Korean automaker is ahead of the timetable it previously laid out for rollout of the vehicles, Jose Munoz said.

Group of Seven nations instead pledged only speed up efforts to move away from combustion engines. “We recognize that this will require dramatically increasing the pace of the global decarbonization of the road transport sector throughout the 2020s, and beyond,” the leaders wrote.

As the shortage of microchips continue to hit automakers globally, Chinese production is being particularly affected as factory schedules are increasingly showing a need to alter vehicle output.