Conclusion of the IAA Mobility International Motor Show in Munich: Between party and paranoia

And so this year only BMW (obligatory as it was a home game), Mercedes, Opel, Tesla and the VW Group, comprising Audi, Cupra, Porsche and VW, followed de Meo to the showrooms at the city gates. Instead of living in their own temples, they line up between large suppliers such as Bosch, Magna, Siemens or ZF and small start-ups where two machines and a monitor are often enough to present an innovation. The dominance of the automobile is over; mobility services providers, e-bikes, oil companies like Exxon and electricity suppliers are on equal footing.

Even though the IAA still holds the name of the car, this is no longer a car show that can attract power and horsepower enthusiasts. Rather, it is a marketplace of ideas and innovations. A pitch stage where analysts and industry experts check the future viability of participants, suppliers come on board, or you search in the hustle and bustle of startups for the next unicorn that might be worth collaborating with. For car fans, everything is pretty smooth.

Innovations for the future

There are definitely new things to see: VW’s ID GTI sports study aims to convey that despite all the e-mobility, Volkswagen is not yet out of fun. Gernot Döllner, 54, the newly appointed CEO of luxury sister company Audi, only shows the interior of the upcoming electric SUV Q6 E-Tron, but the Cupra is overshadowed by the Dark Rebel work. While BMW’s Vision Neue Klasse show car determines the brand’s course towards the future, Opel’s Experimental concept car determines the design of future models. Mercedes shows how it wants to achieve the balance between the compact car and its new luxury strategy in the future with the electric CLA Concept, which is said to have a range of 750 kilometers on a single battery charge. Apart from the two-series Renault, everything is just promises for the future.

But the truly exciting topics can be found in small print. The VW Group participates with a joint stand representing all brands, and CEO Oliver Blume (55) tries to explain how he wants to take his brands as a group into the electric future: greater customer focus, intelligent interconnection of brands and technologies and digital innovation for the Cariad software division. An ambitious plan intended to be a reference point. Porsche relies not only on electric motors but also on synthetic e-fuels. Together with HIF Global and MAN Energy Solutions, CO₂ will be captured from the air as raw material for their future production in order to counter the greenhouse effect. Finally, Chinese automaker Nio, together with German energy supplier EnBW, announced that it will introduce replacement stations for car batteries (remove empty ones, replace charged ones instead of long-term charging) in the future.

China’s brands are on display

In general: European manufacturers have expressed in advance their fear of playing only second fiddle at trade fairs in their own countries. And China’s up-and-coming brands are actually going on a big show in Munich – surprisingly, in the way we’re used to from established companies: huge show stages, pithy speeches and countless cars on the stand. BYD introduced the SUV Seal-U, which looks just like an upgraded version of the Seal sedan. And it has taken the wraps off the Denza D9 EV, an all-electric luxury minivan developed together with Mercedes.

Dongfeng with its brands Seres, MG and Showcase to attract cooperation partners. Conferences and podiums on energy supply or mobility strategies for the African continent offer many opportunities for this.

The city center is more attractive

So is the IAA, which attracts the older crowd, a trade show where car fans feel uncomfortable among people wearing suits? No, because the music is played in the open spaces between Marienplatz and Odeonsplatz in Munich city centre. Porsche looms beneath the massive silhouette of the 911; Mercedes, Audi, BMW, BYD, Ford, Lotus, Mini and VW form a giant red cube. Here they introduce new cars that you can soon buy from the garage, from the Cupra Tavascan to the VW Passat. A citizens’ conference on the future of mobility should also take the pressure off climate protests. However, around 4,000 police officers from across Germany are combing the city center for tubes of superglue.

We will only evaluate the audience tonight. But well-populated open spaces already speak for themselves: the topic of mobility – whether on two wheels or four – still attracts the attention of a wide audience. And against this all the prophecies of doom
Despite che and similar fairs.