Subs exclusive: Why the motor show might never return

After a grim couple of years shut down by Covid and general belt-tightening, Europe’s big motor shows are trying to stage a comeback in a bid to recover some of their pre-pandemic status. This October, the Paris motor show will return after a four-year absence, while the Geneva motor show is currently drumming up support among car makers for its planned comeback show in February 2023, its first since 2019. However, the shows' organisers are finding it hard going. So far, Paris has signed up DS, Jeep, Peugeot and Renault, while Geneva has 15 brands according to one car maker that has been given the sales pitch for 2023. Both shows will hope to grow those numbers, but it doesn’t look like we will be returning to the glory days when both were defining events in the automotive calendar. Geneva didn’t reveal the identity of those 15 brands to the car maker it was pitching to: they might be big hitters or they might be a bunch of automotive tuners and start-ups. The problem is that right now, no car maker can justify spending £2 million-plus on a car show. “We can’t produce enough vehicles, lead times are into next year and we’ve a massive order bank, so why do you need a motor show?” one executive at a car company said on condition of anonymity. “Yes, manufacturers are making more money, but the budget for fixed marketing expenses has gone, and that’s where the motor show budget comes from.” The one most likely to stage a comeback is Geneva, which traditionally kick-started the automotive year with its friendly, compact show that played on its neutrality by presenting a level playing field to car makers (unlike the shows in Frankfurt, now moved to Munich, and Paris). But even luxury car makers, which connected directly with Switzerland’s wealthiest car buyers at the event, are thinking twice about returning. “It's a really good show, but I'm not sure we will go back,” said Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark. The issue is one of cost. “We can gain maybe eight or 10 good wins for the same price,” Hallmark said, referring to smaller, more targeted events. What would make him reconsider? “Whether we have something big enough to celebrate that merits spending millions instead of hundreds of thousands, putting it bluntly,” he said. Hallmark specifically mentioned the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which has just successfully run its second event in the post-pandemic era and looks good value next to more static events like Geneva. One car maker contacted by Geneva was offered a space in the Palexpo hall for the February event for the sum of £850,000. A Goodwood pitch might be similar, but the cost to build a stand at Geneva is higher and there are plenty of ancillary costs, not least the high price of hotel rooms. No motor show is immune to inflated accommodation costs as local businesses capitalise on the increased demand, but the Swiss hotel industry is so notorious for jacking up costs and demanding extended stays that it has become known as the Geneva disease. The hotel closest to the Palexpo exhibition centre, the Starling, stipulates minimum two-week stays, for example. Car makers are also cross with Geneva’s organisers for not refunding them after the abrupt cancellation of the 2020 Geneva show in the teeth of the advancing spread of Covid. Indeed, one car maker said bluntly that the organisers now owe them a free show. The European motor shows themselves are going for big reinventions. Paris, for example, is offering visitors access to a “giant road test centre” where around 100 new vehicles from city cars to large SUVs can be driven on two urban routes of up to 40km (25 miles) long. Longer opening hours to 9.30pm will allow night-time testing to showcase features such as intelligent headlights and the latest interior mood lighting. These more hands-on elements were part of Germany’s reinvented Frankfurt show, now in Munich, held last year (Munich and Paris are staged on alternate years). The so-called IAA Mobility event will be back in September 2023 after what it called a successful reinvention, pulling in 400,000 visitors to experience not just cars but all kinds of personal mobility, right down to e-scooters. During the lockdowns, car makers found that they could communicate to customers and media digitally. While these digital-only reveals and conferences were undoubtedly less impactful than noisy physical unveilings, they were definitely cheaper and could be done to a timetable that suited the car maker rather than the show organiser. Car makers’ fixed marketing budgets will return as the supply crisis eases and competition for customers becomes normal ragain. How big those budgets will be and whether motor shows can show a clear return on that investment is another question, especially as we head into a period of economic weakness.