New York, London, Paris, Munich everyone’s talking about… motor shows. Judging by my diary, it seems the death of the motor show has been widely exaggerated.
I’m just back from the Los Angeles Auto Show, one of the more popular international motor shows of the year and for good reason – who doesn’t want to go to LA in November?
American motor shows, it seems, are thriving. However, like all other events, they’re morphing into experiences where car fans and potential buyers can get a test drive in some of the new models that, previously, they’d only been able to sit in.
Of course, the inexorable march towards electrification helps that, with organisers very happy to let emissions-free cars be driven around the giant show halls, within reason.
In LA the Korean brands stole the show with the fabulous new Hyundai Ioniq 9 (below) being unveiled, Genesis revealing an updated GV70 and Kia rolling out a revised Sportage and GT version of its big, seven-seat, all-electric SUV, the Kia EV9 – current World Car of the Year, no less.
Before LA, it was Paris – a show that had a real old-school show buzz about it with over half a million people passing through the doors back in October. The halls were busy with new models and new brands. For us journalists there were stories aplenty and for the hundreds of thousands of visitors who followed on the public days, there were new names they’re going to have to get used to. Leapmotor, anyone?
Paris alternates with Munich each year, which gives a clue to the brands that are most likely to attend their home shows. Let’s just say that the German brands didn’t go over the top with their stands in Paris, while Renault, Alpine and Dacia (okay Romanian, but part of the Renault group) went all out, even hosting President Macron on press day.
Stellantis brands have a rule of only going to motor shows if they’ve got something new to promote. Unless it’s the Paris Motor Show, obviously, when it’s a three-line whip to attend.
However, the brands that are really keeping motor shows alive are the Chinese newcomers. I’ve already mentioned Leapmotor, but BYD unveiled its new Sealion (another model in its Ocean Series) to much acclaim in Paris, Hongqi (pronounced with a ‘she’ rather than ‘key’ at the end) were also there along with Skyworth, Xpeng and others.
January used to mean wrapping up warm as the car industry headed to sub-zero Detroit, home to the giant US auto makers who simply aren’t as giant as they once were. Having danced around the calendar for a few years, the Detroit show is actually back this January next year. But the world has moved on, car makers think they’re tech companies, and so the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is now the destination of choice for the car business in January.
CES is a huge show spread across the Vegas Convention Centre and the giant hotels in the gambling capital of the world. You’ll not only find a fare few car makers there, but also all the tech suppliers. Big deals are to be done at CES.
Back in Europe, the Geneva Motor Show organisers seem to have given up trying to revive what was the most popular show of the year every March. It was small, affordable, hugely popular and on neutral ground. Everyone went and for British car fans it was do-able in a day via Easyjet.
Bizarrely, the Geneva Motor Show in Doha, Qatar – one of the worst examples of ‘brand stretch’ I’ve ever seen – is still scheduled for November 2025. It would be unwise to think of it as one of the major shows of the year, though.
The US will be at it again in April when what’s claimed to be the world’s oldest motor show opens its doors in New York. Like LA, it’s big news for locals, while we also use it every year to announce the World Car Awards winners. Don’t expect every brand to attend, but it’s another main event where canny car makers can own the show – as the Korean brands did in LA.
Before we get on to Munich, a word for the legendary, long departed Frankfurt Motor Show that used to stand in its place every other September. Famed for the largess of the German marques – Mercedes-Benz had a whole hall to itself, so BMW built one – it was the best way to get your daily steps up that I’ve ever experienced.
From one end of the Messe Frankfurt to the other it was 1.5km – just under a mile. Imagine if you had consecutive interviews with car company executives at different ends of the show throughout the day. That was me. It nearly killed me.
So, Munich it is, with a blend of traditional show halls and a celebration in the surprisingly beautiful city. Taking cars to the people seems like a great idea – more should do that.
The Munich show (takes place September 2025) will probably follow the same theme that developed in 2023: German marques and the Chinese. And maybe Renault. Renault Group boss Luca de Meo is something of a philanthropist who thinks that by supporting the Munich show, German brands will support the following Paris show… I’m not sure that worked this year.
But hold on, I hear you cry, what about London and the UK? I’m old enough to remember going to Earls Court for the Motorfair, as it was called then. It alternated with the NEC in Birmingham for many years, before moving north permanently until it returned to London (just about) at Excel in 2006. There were only two there before organisers SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) pulled the plug in 2008. There hasn’t been an official British International Motor Show since. The name was revived for a few years in a large tent in Battersea Park, before it, too, tried London Excel in 2019. Some people never learn.
Now there is a British Motor Show (above) of sorts – more of a gathering of all things cars: old, new and modified. It’s fun and held in Farnborough every summer.
Perhaps the closest we get to an official motor show these days is the Goodwood Festival of Speed where super-slick salesman the Duke of Richmond persuades the high-ups at car companies to part with considerable amounts of cash to set up shop on the lawns of the Goodwood Estate every summer. And you know what happens in a traditional British summer… We’ve had some very wet Goodwoods.
The 2024 show was a strange combination of a few established brands telling me they’re just letting their contracts run out (“It’s the same tyre kickers every year,” one weary exec told me), excited new Chinese brands thinking it was the place to be, and premium brands – for whom Goodwood can work well – with their carefully curated audience and fans enjoying a terribly British way to enjoy cars.
Incredibly, a claimed 200,000 attend – queuing through the country lanes of Sussex to park in a field and catch a glimpse of the odd F1 driver going up the hill climb.
Elsewhere, there’s a growing cult of cars and coffee-type meets all over the country. They might not be the place to see the latest metal, but they’re fabulous for car spotting, chatting to like-minded car fans and they tend to be free, too.
Just be careful – you might bump into me at one of them.
A meet at the Krazy Horse, Suffolk, pic by James Catley
** Steve Fowler is one of the UK’s best-known automotive journalists and currently EV Editor of The Independent and a regular contributor to The Guardian. He’s the only person to have edited three of the UK’s biggest car titles – Auto Express, Autocar and What Car? – and has interviewed the biggest names in the car world from Tesla’s Elon Musk to Ford’s Jim Farley.
Steve has also presented documentaries for BBC Radio Four and is used as a resident ‘car guru’ on TV and Radio. He’s a World Car of the Year juror and a judge on both Germany’s and India’s Car of the Year Awards. Read more of Steve's work at stevefowler.co.uk.
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