Four years after the last edition, the Paris Auto Show which opens its doors 17 October for the press and 18 for visitors. Until the 23 October, enthusiasts will be able to visit what was once an unmissable biennial appointment for European cars and which today can count on a reduced number of manufacturers compared to the past, but also on many interesting new products.
Paris Motor Show 2022: the 3 novelties of the new edition
To attract everyone's attention is above all the presence (for some cumbersome) of chinese manufacturers, ready to compete with the European giants in a market, the electricity one, which is revolutionizing the automotive world, leading it towards an obligatory transition which risks definitively changing its structure and balance. You can therefore observe the cars of the Chinese brand live Byd, those of Seres need Great Wall Motors, present in Paris with two of its brands, Ora and Wey.
Another important novelty concerns the possibility of carrying out road tests of the cars within an “XXL” test space. Not only that, it is joining the Mondial de l'Auto for the first time Auto Equip, the fair dedicated to automotive after-sales and connected mobility services, in which Crédit Agricole, FCA Bank, Leasys Rent, Agilauto and Sofinco Auto participate.
Paris Auto Show 2022: the most anticipated cars
Needless to say, the great protagonists of the 2022 edition of the Mondial de l'Auto are electric cars, even in the luxury versions with Mercedes who has organized a sort of salon within the salon where they will present the new one Eqe SUV. It is no coincidence that this year's motto is “La Révolution est en route” (the revolution has begun).
The group takes the lion's share Renault, with its brands Dacia, Mobilize, Renault and Alpine. The latter in particular brings to the Parc des Expositions the "pushed" version A110 R rival of the Porsche Cayman GT4, while Dacha, in addition to presenting the new logo that will appear on Sandero, Jogger and Duster, it shows for the first time the concept of the Manifesto, an off-road vehicle without doors, windows and windshield, built with sustainable materials, and the new hybrid Dacia Jogger, the first electrified model of the brand.
Always remaining on the Renault group, the wait is above all for the re-edition of the R4 electric, which will arrive on the market in 2025 and will use the same foundations as the new Renault 5 Bev already seen at IAA Monaco. To celebrate the 50th birthday of the Renault 5, the House of the Lozenge also brings the extravagant R5 Turbo 3E, an all-electric racing car concept aimed at enthusiasts. Finally, the premiere is scheduled for the public of Renault Australia which replaces the Kadjar model.
The already mentioned Byd, on the other hand, will take advantage of the event to launch three new electric vehicles in Europe – the Atto 3 crossover, the Han sedan and the Tang SUV – which will arrive by the end of the year.
As far as Italy is concerned, the Stellantis group presents the restyling of the SD 3, the new DS 4 productions, including the Opera version and the rich DS 9 Opera Premiere, but above all the new one jeep avenger, a 100% electric compact SUV based on a new version of the e-CMP platform which can house batteries of various sizes between 37 and 82 kWh for a maximum range of 400 km. In Paris there is also the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe, the first application of a 4 2.0-cylinder plug-in engine – combined with two electric motors – in this model. It will have a total power of 375 HP and a declared electric range of 40 km. Finally, for the brand Peugeot, there is the new 408.
Another highly anticipated debut is that of the NamX HUV, a hydrogen-powered SUV designed by Pininfarina which has the particularity of removable gas tanks.
Last gem: the Vietnamese cars of VinFast which brings no less than 4 electric SUVs to Paris: VF 6, VF 7, VF 8 and VF 9, the latest born from the collaboration with Pininfarina and Torino Design, and designed to be the future protagonists of the electric market in the USA and Europe, as well as in Asian countries.
The great absent
First the pandemic, then the microchip crisis and now also the war in Ukraine. The political and economic situation is not helping the car market to recover from a deep crisis which risks making illustrious victims. The market is dominated by fears and uncertainty. This is also why many car manufacturers have decided to give up on shows and fairs.
The Mondial de l'auto 2022, the first in presence after the pandemic, has in fact a characteristic that has not escaped anyone: the absentee list is longer than that of the present. For various reasons, brands such as: Aston Martin, Audi, Bmw, Citroën, Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Kia, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Lexus, Lotus, Porsche, are not participating in the Paris Motor Show 2022. Skoda and Toyota.
The European car market
As mentioned, the 2022 edition of the Paris Auto Show comes at a difficult time for the European car market. The latest forecast published a few weeks ago by Acea, in fact, they estimate for the current year a decline of 1% to 9,6 million units after initially predicting a return to growth. “Compared to pre-pandemic data from 2019, this represents a 26% drop in car sales over just three years,” Acea stressed.
The president of the Association, Oliver Zipse, sent the European authorities to create the right framework conditions for "greater resilience of European supply chains, a law on EU critical raw materials that guarantees strategic access to the raw materials necessary for electric mobility and an acceleration of the introduction of recharging infrastructures".
For Italy auto registrations, after thirteen consecutive monthly declines, recorded ad August and Septemberand growth of +9,9% and +5,4% in September respectively. Positive signals, but feeble. In fact, if you look at the data from the beginning of the year, the minus sign continues to dominate: balance sheet for the first nine months of the year closed with a decrease of 2021% compared to the same period of 16,3.
