Messe

Anyone who has been in the trade fair business for over 20 years knows that getting there on the first press day is usually tedious: there are no traffic jams with delays of around two hours in Geneva, Moscow, Shanghai and earlier at the IAA in Frankfurt Rarity. In Munich, as long as the climate stickers don’t block traffic, there’s no problem. 20 minutes from the city center to the exhibition center in Riem – no chaos, no waiting. You can immediately feel that the number of visitors is limited.

Dead reef in area C

The first walk through the halls leaves a good impression: no huge open spaces where a few bicycles eke out their existence, like at the debut two years ago. Halls A and B are attractively sorted. Only those who leave it realize that there was still a lot of space in the C area. Instead: dead reef. These halls are closed.

Mario Drescher

The first press day at the so-called summit is quite full – with admission prices of 175 euros for trade visitors. However, anyone who knows the press conferences from Mercedes in the Festhalle Frankfurt, or from BMW in Hall 10, will ask themselves: What is wrong in the car country of Germany that what was once the most famous car trade fair in the world with around a million visitors has been reduced to an event that… just fills two halls? It was proudly announced that Tesla was there. But the stand, with bare walls and just two cars, looked as if it had been reluctantly purchased by the US manufacturer. There can be no question of a brand presence here. And anyone who knows the gigantic Bosch stands at the CES in Las Vegas will be even more surprised. The world’s largest supplier runs a small program in its home country.

VW with a board of directors, but a puny trade fair stand

The VW Group is at least somewhat loyal to the VDA as a trade fair operator: the entire board of directors, led by Oliver Blume, takes part in the press conference, the new Cariad boss Peter Bosch and the new Audi board chairman Gernot Döllner – visibly nervous – attend it Stage debut, even the chairman of the supervisory board, Wolfgang Porsche, is there. The size of the stand for all brands combined? Roughly the same as Seat or Skoda at the IAA in Frankfurt. Where the entire Hall 4, including the outside area, was used by the company at the time.

Don’t get me wrong: the gigantomania of the IAA in Frankfurt was ultimately more than out of date. As a journalist you were happy to travel ten kilometers a day to cover everything. But the pendulum has swung from one extreme to the other – which is not due to a lack of space, but rather to the fact that many manufacturers did not even make the trip to Munich: the Japanese representatives were missing, as was the entire Stellantis group except Opel. Quo Vadis Munich, you ask yourself.

Shared Mass, double suffering?

Among other things, it is the dichotomy of the concept that attracts criticism – rightly so, because the route from Riem to the city center to the so-called open spaces is long. However, the average consumer with a family is not welcome at the exhibition grounds. Only the so-called B-2-B business takes place there. Why exactly, you ask?

Stefan Baldauf

Pomp against a historical backdrop: Mercedes stand in the Residenzhof in Munich

The good news is that the stands around Odeonsplatz are spectacular: Mercedes, Porsche, VW, Polestar – they have all put a lot of work into the concepts to show people on the street that electric cars look good and Above all, they are excellent to drive. But everyone in Munich wants the core of their city to be paralyzed by one car mile for a week. Anyone who listens to passers-by begins to have doubts.

Munich Trade Fair is reminiscent of Leipzig

The fact that the climate activists, Greenpeace and other groups of dubious reputation repeatedly disrupt the trade fair and the event in the city does not make things any better. One thing is certain: this trade fair is not worthy of one of the most important automotive locations in the world. It is somewhat reminiscent of Auto Mobil, which took place in Leipzig until 2014.

Not at all. Everything is perfect!

Restart as a participatory event without pomp and show.

Everything. We don’t need the fair anymore!

Less cars, more mobility topics!

What has to be done now? The members of the VDA – and that is Audi, BMW, Mercedes, the VW Group and suppliers such as Bosch, ZF and Schaeffler – have to agree on a concept that everyone then really wants to implement. What kind of trade fair is this, where at almost every stand you are confronted with the fact that you yourself would not have wanted to have such a trade fair arrangement. It cannot be the case that an IAA – which once had world fame – only exists so that the VDA receives its most important source of income. Then you, dear members, have to rethink collectively, otherwise you will contribute to further destroying the reputation of this trade fair.

2023-09-08 09:53:49
#Commentary #IAA #Munich #Auto #trade #fair #obsolete #model