00:00hi today i'll take you on a tour of the paris motor show 2026 how many chinese manufacturers
00:06were there do the european car makers still have anything interesting to show and has anything
00:12changed on the car show scene that's all in this episode let's go
00:21the last time i was at the paris motor show was so long ago that renault filled their stand
00:25with the then new fourth generation clio and the bmw showed a concept version of the two series
00:32active tourer in 2026 bmw didn't even show up and renault filled their stand with the electric five
00:39and four models even though everyone was more interested in the e space concept whatever goes
00:46into production can't be any worse than the current generation of the espace but from the gate that i
00:52used to enter the fairgrounds the path led me to a pavilion occupied largely by chinese brands
00:59first i came across the lee auto booth this relatively new brand based in beijing specializes
01:05in electric cars and cars with range extenders lee auto primarily produces suvs which at first glance
01:12all look very similar so i checked out the first one i approached which turned out to be the l9
01:17the
01:18european price for this five and a quarter meter long six seater suv is around 70 000 euro considering
01:25that the base version of the mercedes-benz glc costs around 65 000 euro the european manufacturers
01:31on the second floor of the same pavilion were probably soiling their pants and rightly so because
01:37no matter what you say about the ions the four things and other jacus lee auto's quality is up there
01:46whatever the upholstery is made of the feel and smell is so good that i'm tempted to believe it's
01:52leather or certainly a very good imitation of leather there are buttons on the steering wheel
01:57buttons on the doors the seat controls are also operated by physical buttons the doors close so
02:03smoothly that the soft close function is probably just to rub it in i'm looking at you audi and mercedes
02:09because bmw knew better than to show its piggy snout this happened to be the middle eastern spec
02:16version with a range extender but even with a combustion engine on board this car is built on
02:22an 800 volt architecture and has a traction battery with a capacity of nearly 73 kilowatt hours
02:29from there i went to the second floor of the pavilion where i quickly passed the gray mercedes stand
02:36and the deserted volvo stand as well as the moderately interesting hyundai stand at least
02:42the ionic 3 was red so it stood out it also had a subpar interior compared to the chinese cars
02:48i mean
02:48put it next to one of the budget audi or mercedes models and hyundai is worth the price but when
02:54you see
02:55the price of a chinese car the legacy brands become increasingly difficult to justify at their current
03:03price point at least before you start driving one at the ziker stand again i checked out whatever i saw
03:10first because i really don't know if the 7 gt is even new or where it fits in its lineup
03:16if someone had
03:17told me it was a honda interior i would have believed them and i say this as a compliment because
03:23honda
03:23may not make interesting cars anymore but their interiors have always been very very good here also we have
03:32buttons on the doors on the seats on the steering wheel and under the center display and there's a
03:38driver's display as well there is nothing for a european automotive journalist to complain well
03:42perhaps except for the pop-up door handles or pop out actually but i'm sure they're gonna change this
03:49soon enough and i know that the infotainment system most likely was designed by people who first sat in a
03:58car about 10 years ago but starting at 46 000 euro that's a lot of car then i followed a
04:05camera on
04:06wheels and reached the pavilion occupied mainly by the reno group and somewhere in the back was honda
04:12but even honda was showing more cars than volvo at the reno stand everyone was trying to get a glimpse
04:18of
04:18the e space concept the og mpv in its current generation is absolute garbage so i'm not surprised
04:25so many people are hoping for a turnaround of course as is often the case with concept cars the designers
04:33favor suicide doors in a concept car this gives better view of the interior and i'm sure someone
04:40will tell you that this was done to demonstrate a new interior concept and emphasize the space and the
04:49sense of space and the yada yada besides relatively exotic cars like a rolls royce and a ferrari which
04:56by the way retain b pillars you can count pillarless suicide door cars on fingers of a lumberjack's hand
05:03we have a mazda rx8 mazda mx30 the bmw i3 and the ford b-max and the latter had sliding
05:11rear doors
05:12because someone noticed that they make more sense in a family car whatever becomes of the e-space
05:18concept may keep the modern retro exterior styling and probably the electric drivetrain
05:25although if i were reno i'd seriously consider at least a plug-in hybrid as a diesel engine is
05:31probably out of the question i also keep my fingers crossed for the return of a practical
05:37modular interior design because families today families larger than 2 plus 2 have very limited
05:43choices when it comes to cars now somewhere along the way i met the polish byd and denza team
05:49who encouraged me to go and visit the byd booth where they were showcasing another generic looking
05:55suv the atto 8 it's a seven seater and it supports flash charging technology this means charging with
06:02power up to byd doesn't say but denza models supporting this technology can charge at up to 1500
06:08kilowatts provided you can find a dedicated byd charging station byd states that the car's 115
06:16kilowatt hour blade battery charges from 10 to 97 percent in nine minutes by advanced mathematics the
06:23average charging power is 600 kilowatts so at a 400 kilowatt charger this thing has a flat charging curve
06:32i just wish it didn't look like it's been designed by artificial intelligence
06:37next i went to a hall shared largely by stellantis and the volkswagen group on the way i saw byd
06:45ceo stella lee the days when chinese engineers crawled under european cars at trade shows to
06:52measure suspension components are long gone today chinese executives are treated like rock stars and
06:59they go about smiling like cheshire cats getting back to stelantis and the volkswagen group stelantis
07:06clearly had a brainstorming session ahead of the show and told its creative team to go all out we've
07:13had the extended ami topolino in the form of the fiat multiplina there was a multiply concept car the
07:22citroen 2cv concept the peugeot rcz and et16 concepts the ds fever concept the alfa cuoro rosso
07:30concept and somewhere along the way there was also the production version of the lancia gamma
07:35this was probably the biggest surprise of the paris motor show because i had somehow forgotten that
07:41stellantis was still trying to bring this brand back from the dead while stellantis concept cars are fun
07:48interesting exciting and sometimes innovative the lancia gamma clearly demonstrates why stellantis is
07:54where it is today buy a c5 aircross and don't pretend the gamma is anything more but the 2cv concept
08:02is
08:02great and i hope it goes into production the et16 is a preview of the electric successor to the 208
08:08featuring steer by wire technology which peugeot has already showcased in the polygon concept car
08:13speaking of steer by wire this technology is also expected to be featured in the successor to the
08:20alfa julia based on the cuoro rosso concept car steer by wire from peugeot in an alfa romeo what could
08:28possibly go wrong at least the alpha is supposed to keep the v6 under the hood even stellantis executives
08:34wouldn't be able to look at themselves in the mirror if they put a 1.2 liter pure tech in
08:40the julia
08:42while the stellantis stands were packed with exciting concept models there was tumbleweed
08:48rolling across the volkswagen group booths i remember the days when everyone was at the skoda
08:54stand firstly there was also something interesting going on secondly there were some attractive hostesses
09:02there thirdly there were good workstations with fast internet i know everyone has internet on their
09:08cell phone these days and fourthly this is where the best food was served and now i saw the skoda
09:16peak
09:16pretty much all by myself audi there was the a2 e-tron the base model starts around what a decently
09:25specced 30 centimeters longer changan depal s05 costs which also has a larger traction battery when it comes to
09:33cars i'm team europe all the way but audi will have a hard time competing with the chinese car makers
09:39with a mid-spec a2 costing as much as that ziker i showed you at the beginning i didn't even
09:46bother
09:46to visit the cupra booth meanwhile at volkswagen there were two id tiguan's this is what the id4 should
09:53have been from the start another advantage of the id tiguan is that the dealers will soon be giving away
10:00id4s and id5s as free gifts with other car purchases the last pavilion had a few more chinese offerings
10:08including chan gun and full disclosure here it was chan gun who invited me to the paris motor show paid
10:15for my travel and lodging i'll spare you the models that are already available on the european market
10:22there were two premiers the depal s07 ph ev and the nevo q05 the former is a ph ev variant
10:30of an
10:31already offered electric model this is a ph ev not a chinese market e-rev why i was told it's
10:38to do with
10:38homologation my guess is european customers prefer technology which they understand the nevo q5 on the
10:45other hand is an electric crossover described in the press release as a b plus segment suv but it
10:51over 443 centimeters long it is almost as big as the toyota corolla cross it's also larger than the
10:58previous generation bmw x1 it boasts a 64 kilowatt hour lfp battery 174 kilowatt hour peak charging and
11:0730 to 80 percent charging time of 15 minutes it has a range of about 450 kilometers the interior is
11:14generic
11:15like a byd but at least the exterior is somewhat interesting at the time of recording pricing has
11:22not yet been announced but i imagine this will cost somewhere in the mid-spec volkswagen id cross
11:29skoda epic range both of which are smaller moreover chan gun and other chinese brands emphasized their
11:38continued commitment to development and production in europe which coincided with news of china being
11:44slapped with restrictions on imports of hybrid cars to europe now for my part i'd also like to add
11:52that i've noticed differences in the approach the european and chinese brands take to auto shows
11:59europeans continue to showcase concept models which undoubtedly generate media interest in numerous
12:05publications the chinese on the other hand don't waste their time on concept models they showcase what
12:12they have because in a year or two when technology from the stellantis concept finally trickles down to a
12:19production model the chinese will be two generations ahead and this is something the european managers
12:26need to understand if i were them i'd start crawling under some chinese cars
12:37if you like my sarcastic down to earth and possibly mildly amusing car reviews join me every friday 3 pm
12:44central european time
12:45and don't forget to subscribe and like this video as it helps me with the youtube algorithm
12:51thanks for watching and i will see you in the next one
