Perhaps the days when auto shows debuted new models aren’t entirely over. The big trade shows for cars were a gateway drug for many, expos where you could see the newest models of today and the concepts of tomorrow. But automakers increasingly got tired of sharing the spotlight with each other.
New reveals moved offsite to events the night or even the week before the show itself. One by one, brands pulled out of auto show after auto show until there was little left to see. And then the pandemic hit.
But the news out of Paris, where its auto show held media day yesterday, seems like we stepped back into a time when automakers would debut new cars aplenty. That retro vibe extends to the cars themselves, with plenty of familiar nameplates reimagined. France’s Renault has a long and glorious history of delightful concept cars, and more on what it brought to Paris later.
But the star of the show was arguably Stellantis, with strong work from Citroen, Peugeot, and Fiat, to name but three. But this article is meant to irritate you, because I’m pretty sure none of the stuff you’re seeing here will come to the United States. And it’s doubly irritating considering what Stellantis’ brands do offer us over here, doubling down on the same malign trends I saw back in 2020: did you know they’re about to relaunch a V8 Hellcat-powered Charger?
The European concepts show us that, as those Kneecap chaps have it, there’s a better way to live. A sense of utopia was responsible for the original Citroen 2 CV; it had to be cheap enough for a farmer to buy it and rugged enough to get produce to market without breaking it. I’m not sure whether the 2 CV Concept also has to be able to transport eggs across a rutted field without breaking any (although the glove box is a clue), but Citroen says that affordability, lightness, practicality, and versatility were top of mind during the design process.
The press release probably didn’t need to also say the company imbued it with distinctive character or charm; that’s quite obvious from the design.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
