Show Biz: is the traditional motor show dead? We visited one in 2025 to find out

↳ Press day, 6:50am

Phone alarm goes off. I wonder briefly where I am and begin my daily audit of what hurts this morning. So tired. I left the window open overnight for a bit of air, and I can hear the announcements from Munich’s main station next door. This is the second motor show I’ll have been to in the past eight years, weird to think that three or four of them a year used to be part of the timetable. I need some coffee.

↳ 7:05am

I’ve just got time for a shower and a quick stare at the wall. A fit check before I leave the room. I’m going for ‘unemployed car designer’ in my suit jacket and light black jumper. Used to be you had to dress up for a motor show like you were going to a wedding because of the mingling with important executive types. Now they all wear trainers and no one knows what to do.

↳ 7:24am

On a shuttle. It’s a perk, being ferried about town in style, but it’s founded on the humiliating but entirely accurate principle that journalists can’t be trusted to get anywhere by themselves.

Photography: Alex Tapley

↳ 8:03am

Ah, the Messe exhibition hall. There’s an instant whiff of nostalgia as I emerge from claustrophobic panic of the revolving door (it’s manual – takes me approximately six seconds to realise). I think the smell must be the exhibition carpets that take a lifetime of traffic in a week and get stuck in a skip afterwards. The main entrance looks like a train station with no tracks, all glass and giant screens.

↳ 8:19am

I spot the Corsa concept on the Opel stand – it looks like a CGI render even standing next to it. I’ve never really understood the point of concept cars, they’re mostly quite stupid. Though I am reminded vaguely of the scene in Devil Wears Prada where Meryl Streep’s beastly mag editor icily explains how Anne Hathaway’s lumpy blue jumper is the result of a series of industry decisions going back years. It’s basically the same thing.

↳ 8:42am

The show has six halls allocated (out of 16) – five and a half if you include the existential misery of A3. It’s only half used, with a smattering of tiny bare wooden trade stands, but is dominated by a corral of food trucks. I feel a twinge of sympathy for the forlorn looking reps who’ve been banished from head office for the week. The companies all seem to have names that are spelled wrong. In a row you’ve got Surprice, Moter and Protean all vying for obscure but probably crucial B2B contracts.

↳ 8:56am

Turkish car brand TOGG is about to launch. The slogan on the stand’s backdrop is “Togg’ether beyond”, which doesn’t work on so many levels. That’s what happens when you feed a marketing manager after midnight. The car itself is a generic crossover with a giant grille.

↳ 9:09am

I bump into Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders boss Mike Hawes, who’s busy sorting out the British car industry, but not too busy for a quick chat (I used to work for him, I’m not that well connected). He’s a fan of motor shows like this – maybe he can bring Birmingham back.

↳ 9:23am

I try to have a look at the XPeng press conference, but it’s a) rammed, b) in Chinese (there are headsets available but I’d have to fight through the crowd like John Wick to get one) and c) there’s a man next to me who’s the absolute spit of Rob Brydon but Spanish and it’s very distracting.

↳ 9:27am

I nearly get trampled by a German cabinet minister as I clamber onto a busy VW stand. For some reason there aren’t any cars on it apart from the little baby ID concept revealed back in March.

It looks like the stage is being used for a rolling series of reveals, but it’s OK because I saw it all yesterday at the VW Group’s Munich eve press conference – a series of four baby EVs spun off the same platform (the electric Polo probably the most consequential), a new 911 Turbo S and the odd looking Audi concept.

It was bright and glitzy and went on for ages. My theory was if we were kept there for long enough we’d develop the marketing equivalent of Stockholm syndrome and love everything. Bob Marley’s son Rohan was there, he decorated an ID. Buzz.

↳ 9:34am

Just passed 4,000 steps. At Frankfurt one year I did 38,000 steps, but that was a different era. The alarm on the self driving ID. Buzz is going off on the Mobileye stand. Was disappointed to watch it being driven on stage at the press conference yesterday.

An engineer spots me making fun of it, so I have to feign an interest in his autonomous bus by way of recompense

↳ 9:49am

There’s a motor show s*** sandwich thing going on, with a big carmaker at the far end of each hall (though only four of them, there aren’t enough big carmakers here) and then a filling of smaller trade stands who presumably get a warm fuzzy glow from the passing footfall. I joke with a man from a Japanese parts supplier that his is the stand that people stand on when they’re trying to get a better view of the press conference on the stand over there. He chuckles, but there’s pain behind the eyes.

↳ 9:53am

Huge crowds at Leapmotor, where a man is talking about cars. I can’t follow a single thing that’s happening today, will read the TG website later to find out what was going on. All the buzz is around the new Chinese brands though, it feels like a watershed moment.

↳ 9:55am

Feels a bit like a national show, but with a brace of Chinese brands muscling in. Volvo’s here, but it’s a sad little stand that’s probably been funded by a dealer from down the road. Ford, Hyundai/Kia, Renault and Lucid have space in the wider public show that starts tomorrow around Munich city centre. It’s a bold idea, and it’s where all the money’s been spent (£2m on the Merc stand I hear) – there are four main locations around town where people can see the latest cars on their way home from work or going round the shops, instead of schlepping all the way out to an exhibition centre.

↳ 10:01am

Visit the new electric GLC on the Merc stand. I like the back end, but no one in their right mind likes the front – Mercedes anticipated this by putting a fence in the way that stops anyone getting a proper look. There’s a queue of people taking turns trying to capture its effervescent grille with their phones.

↳ 10:04am

I’m all for new blood in the car industry but it’s GAC I have a problem with. Not the cars, they look fine (the Aion V SUV looks sort of perky, even – it’s coming to the UK in 2026). It’s the fact it’s named after the sound my cat makes shortly before I step on something damp in the dining room in my socks.

↳ 10:09am

Spot another crowd of people. It’s the Smart stand! In keeping with the brand’s heritage it’s tiny and I missed it on my earlier walk. Incidentally, I really enjoy it when brands have stupid names the company representatives have to persist with every time they mention them. It’s very hashtag funny. Make a mental note to come back later when I can actually see something.

↳ 10:16am

Preparations apace for the press conference on the Changan stand. A man stands on stage next to the mystery car (the Deepal S05 – imagine a Porsche Macan narrowing its eyes) while others set up cameras and check mic levels. Another little fellow is going round the car steaming the creases out of the sheet that’s set to be whipped off. It’s the attention to detail that matters.

↳ 11:41am

I’ve bumped into TG’s Jason Barlow twice in the past 10mins at completely different parts of the show. He’s thrilled to have spotted the PIX Moving Beastie – a very poor man’s self driving Ariel Nomad, but it has the best wheels of the show. An engineer spots me making fun of it, so I have to feign an interest in his autonomous bus by way of recompense. The seat is surprisingly comfortable. Just passed 7,000 steps. Feet are starting to twinge a little.

↳ 11:57am

Speak to some nice fellows from Project 2|3, an engineering firm set up to develop a nifty set of two- and three-wheel motorbikes. There’s an electric BMW C1 style scooter they’ve built to try and sell to manufacturers. It looks good, but I do question whether a high powered engineer will impulse buy a white labelled bike project on the way past.

↳ 12:14pm

Germany is progressive in so many ways, but much like a dirty uncle in others – there are still show models here and grimy cigarette vending machines sit in between halls.

↳ 12:49pm

Wait, maybe Smart hasn’t hashtag revealed that hashtag concept car, because the stand is conspicuously devoid. Could be somewhere else – Renault is launching its new Clio today and isn’t even here. Polestar too has skipped the show but is revealing its new 5 in town later, Skoda’s got a swanky event for its new concept somewhere else. Clearly they didn’t want to shell out for an expensive booth at the Messe, but it’s almost like there’s a Munich fringe festival developing here.

I like this new style of motor show though – a nutty press/trade centre with a tasty consumer covering. The journalists and company folks are concentrated inside the exhibition centre having high powered meetings, but carmakers can still splash the cash on impressing potential customers with glitzy show stands in town.

↳ 13:43pm

I’ve hit my 10,000 steps, so even if I take nothing else away I’m one day closer to a healthier lifestyle.

Orlando Bloom wails past while I’m squirting mustard down my jumper

↳ 14:05pm

Spot TG’s Paul Horrell doing actual work while I’ve been prancing around the show (10,930 steps). He’s interviewing someone smart on the Rimac Technologies stand. I have no idea what they’re talking about.

The coffee is lovely, and I get a pleasant chat with head of comms, Marta Longin. Rimac Technologies (the commercial bit of the company) thinks it’s important to be here at the show and will have loads of meetings with both customers and suppliers. Tomorrow there will be a Rimac on display in a collectors’ exhibition in town, but here it’s all business. I wait several hours, but Paul’s still talking so I head off.

↳ 14:39pm

A tour round BMW now the crowds have gone. Swerve the Mini JCW x Deus Ex Machina concepts entirely, they reek of not having enough to go on the stand. The Neue Klasse iX3 isn’t quite the move from the company’s current aesthetically challenged styling I thought it would be... can’t fault 500 miles of range, though. My eye’s drawn to the enormous infotainment display that’s probably going in the i7 facelift to try and outdo the Merc Hyperscreen. Must be thousands of inches across, I like it. BMW won’t let me stand next to it though.

↳ 15:18pm

Very late lunch, but for weeks I’ve been thinking of happy memories of currywurst on the Volkswagen stand at some show or other. I bump into TG editor Jack Rix, who ropes in UK PR boss Mike Orford for help. Security is tight, but with the blessing of VW’s head of communications I’m ushered to the swanky restaurant that sits atop the stand... no currywurst. Bit low rent for this outfit. More evidence of VW’s relentless move upmarket.

↳ 15:27pm

Get a bratwurst from a stand in the grassy middle area of the Messe. If I can’t manage one local icon I’ll grab another. And all it costs me is the equivalent of a monthly mortgage on a two bed semi in the Midlands.

↳ 15:28pm

Orlando Bloom wails past while I’m squirting mustard down my jumper. Why’s he here? I’ll Google it later.

↳ 16:24pm

Oops, running late for Skoda’s Vision O reveal in the city centre. I bump into Paul Horrell on the way out, he’s off into town too. I’m desperate to use one of the e-scooters you can hire in Munich, feel the wind in my eyebrows. Paul’s getting the metro because he thinks it’s quicker (by about 40 minutes it turns out, mainly because I get lost twice and end up walking through the pedestrian zone – 13,157 steps).

Now I’ve seen the future, it’s not offering much between ‘bog standard car but electric’ and ‘personal autonomous helicopter’. But the future of the motor show? It’s looking good with this balance. Maybe it’s the future of journalism I should be worried about now that the carmakers have broken free of the show halls...