Serge Gachot, the director of the Mondial, promises “a great automobile celebration”. The show, which takes place every two years in the capital, plans to welcome around 500,000 visitors, as in 2024.
Due to Covid, it was canceled in 2020, and “the manufacturers then somewhat abandoned international car shows, in a complicated context for the automobile industry,” explains Mr. Gachot.
But for this 91st edition, from October 12 to 18, “we found real enthusiasm”: 24 brands were present in 2022, 48 in 2024, and there will be more than sixty this year, including 25 Chinese brands (there were ten in 2024).
It is “a very good representation of the market with European manufacturers, a few Americans and a lot of Asians”, estimates Mr. Gachot. “The world is moving” and the show “is a showcase of what is happening in the automotive industry at the moment.”
The sector is experiencing strong contradictions, with a contraction of the market, which has not returned to the level of sales of 2019, before the health crisis, which weighs on employment.
The French automobile industry, which has already lost 50,000 jobs in five years, could eliminate 75,000 additional positions by 2035, warned Luc Chatel, president of the Automobile Platform (PFA), co-organizer of the World Cup, Thursday in Le Parisien.
He calls Chinese competition into question: “today, it is 10% of the market, it will be 20% in three or five years” and “the European obligation to achieve 100% new electric vehicles in 2035.”
New 2CV and autonomous vehicles
For Mr. Gachot, “there is also healthy emulation with the arrival of new, very innovative players who encourage others to stay in the competition and fight.”
“For a very long time, the development time for a car was 3 and a half years on average. There, the Chinese do that in 2 years, maximum,” notes the director of the show.
As a result, the development time for the new electric Renault Twingo was reduced to 21 months, he gives as an example.
According to him, innovation constitutes the “DNA” of the show, he sees it as “an extraordinary platform where automobile brands come to share all the new products, concepts, technologies, etc.”
Visitors will be able to test nearly 90 models from 20 brands, “including city cars, sedans and SUVs, electric or hybrid”, details a press release from the Mondial, with more than 5,000 test slots offered.
“We will also have fully automatic, supervised driving tests”, notably with Tesla, autonomous vehicles constituting one of the other challenges of the future of transport.
As for the players, Stellantis will be present with eight brands and will unveil the electric version of its legendary Citroën 2CV, production of which stopped in 1980.
All brands of the Volkswagen group are also expected, as well as Renault, but also Mercedes, Hyundai, Volvo or Smart, absent in 2024.
Emmanuel Macron will visit the show on Monday, during the day reserved for the press. He must visit the stands of Stellantis, Renault, Volkswagen and the French equipment manufacturer Valeo, before participating in a round table on autonomous vehicles.
