My 1.5 cents... Don’t you think Autel‘s decision to announce at CES was a solely a marketing one? They wanted to generate big-time buzz, even if there were issues — mission accomplished. Delays? Heck, that’s Autel’s middle name.
Covid 19 was well-established in Wuhan by mid-Dec., except they jailed you if you talked about it openly (Thanks ChiComms, hope to return the favor someday).
Autel, and/or their contracted manufacturers, had to know before CES that Covid might become an issue. The ChiComms lie to their own people, so who knew how big?? It could explain their hesitation/indecision about CES??