► The no-shows at the Paris motor show
► Who’s not there, and why
► The show starts on 29 September
For all the hullabaloo around the 2016 Paris motor show, it’s worth noting the car makers who won’t be attending this week.
There’s been a glut of manufacturers who’ve decided to swerve the autumn’s big car show.
A flood of no-shows: why car makers are skipping the 2016 Paris motor show
It’s a relatively simple equation to fathom. Attending a global motor show costs, at a minimum, many hundreds of thousands of euros – and for many of the larger car brands, that cost spirals into millions to fund fancy stands and fees, personnel and the whizz-bang showbiz nowadays required to draw a crowd.
It ain’t cheap. But most manufacturers missing the show also point to a product announcement cycle out of kilter with the Paris timing.
Unofficially, senior sources also disclose that the French car market is heavily skewed towards local brands; certain mainstream big players have a very small footprint in France and it’s hard to justify the cost of attending for minimal sales returns.
Who’s not at Paris
The following major car makers will not be represented at the Paris motor show. If we added in niche brands, there’d be even more absences. Here’s a run-down of the no-shows – and the reasons why they’re not there.
Aston Martin
‘We will not be at the show. We have been pretty busy in the first six month of the year launching the new DB11. We only go to shows if we have a big announcement to make; it does not make sense for us to be at an international motor show unless we have a major news story.’
Bentley
‘We are not at the Paris show; we haven’t been to the LA or Detroit shows recently, either.’
Bugatti
‘We haven’t attended the Paris show for more than 10 years and will not be there in 2016. Geneva was our only motor show this year, when we unveiled the Chiron. In general, we focus more on customer-related events. In the US, for instance, we do not do motor shows at all. The Pebble Beach weekend is the most important event for us.’
Cadillac
‘We will not be on site at all.’
Ford
‘Ford isn’t attending the Paris motor show in 2016. We are diverting the money we would have spent there into events more closely aligned with our consumers – like the Go Further 3 event later in the autumn.’
Lamborghini
‘We look very closely at the motor shows we need to be at and where our customers are. We will not be at Paris. We need to have the best ROI each year.’
Lotus
‘Paris is not in sync with our new product timetable this year so we will not be attending.’
Mazda
‘We have nothing all-new to show. The costs of attending are not inconsiderable. So we will not be there.’
McLaren
‘McLaren Automotive will not be exhibiting at the Paris motor show. We would not attend any show unless we had a global debut of a car.’
MG
‘We will not be attending this year’s Paris motor show’
Rolls-Royce
No official reason available at time of publication.
Subaru
There is no official manufacturer presence in Paris this year – but the local distributor will be there.
Volvo
‘The reason for us not doing Paris is that each of our principal sales regions is covered by a show each. So Detroit, Geneva and Shanghai/Beijing. It’s a global investment decision.’
Click here for more news from the car makers who are attending the Paris motor show