Chinese OEM expansion in Europe

• 20 to 25 Chinese brands exhibited against 9 in 2024, and their European market share reached 10.7% in Q2
• Competition has moved from price to localisation: BYD builds in Hungary, XPENG builds the G9L in Graz, GAC targets 200 French sales points by 2030
• XPENG debuted the G9L from €74,990, with 591 km WLTP range and 10 to 80% charging in 12 minutes
• BYD's ATTO 8 brings FLASH Charging (10 to 70% in five minutes), with 3,000 stations planned by end 2027
• Zeekr reports 200% delivery growth in 2026 and plans 200 European dealers by year end
• Li Auto enters Europe in Q1 2027, and Changan signed a Croatia distribution deal with OMR Group
• Rival and partner roles are blurring: Leapmotor shares a hall with Stellantis, Smart #2 is a Mercedes-Benz and Geely venture

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Europe's answer: heritage and affordability

• Citroën's 2 CV Concept targets about €15,000 and a 2028 launch, below the €17,900 Dacia Spring
• Its price depends on a new European small-vehicle category similar to a Kei car
• Stellantis took the largest stand, and H1 2026 net profit of €670m compares with a €2.26bn loss a year earlier
• Peugeot's E-T16 concept delivers 816 hp, and its RCZ Vision uses a solid-state battery
• Renault reports EV sales up 74% from January to August and developed the new Twingo in about 100 weeks
• Volkswagen Group's Electric Urban Car Family holds almost 150,000 orders
• The gap is timing: many European concepts lack production dates, while Chinese models are ready to sell

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Policy and industrial competitiveness

• France and Germany agreed 70% European parts from 2028 and a 90% CO2 cut by 2035, pending a Parliament vote on 23 November
• The EU capped Chinese-built hybrid imports at 350,000 a year, excluding hybrids built in Europe
• Volkswagen, Stellantis and Renault jointly asked Brussels for a Made in Europe rule and more time on CO2 targets
• Renault Group tied more than €10bn of French investment to political and social stability
• President Macron hosted around 60 European automotive leaders before opening, with no Chinese carmakers invited
• Electric cars reached 41.1% of French new car sales in September

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Software, AI and physical AI

• AI is becoming a production method: 35% of Valeo's certified vehicle code is AI-generated
• Physical AI became a brand position, with XPENG's IRON humanoid and Tesla's robot beside the Cybercab
• The software-defined vehicle is moving into architecture: Valeo zonal controllers replace up to 100 ECUs
• AUMOVIO and GAC Motor co-developed a Central Computing Unit, and Hyundai launched PLEOS in the new TUCSON
• Capgemini debuted its Hero Car and released a report on scaling agentic AI in engineering
• Stellantis plans L2++ launches from 2028

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Electrification, charging and batteries

• Battery-electric vehicles reached 21.7% of new EU registrations in the first eight months, up from 15.8%
• Home or workplace charging costs up to five times less in energy than fuel
• Infrastructure is the next constraint: motorway demand in France could reach 4.4 GW by 2035, nearly ten times today
• Valeo reports a 24% winter range gain from Predict4Range software
• Volkswagen Group's battery roadmap centres on Cell-to-Pack and the Unified Cell, while ProLogium advances its Dunkirk gigafactory
• Far-A-Day proposed charging while driving through a robotic coupling

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Automated mobility

• The show gave automated vehicles a dedicated place, from PIX Moving to Hyundai with Waymo and Tesla's Cybercab
• PIX Moving showed a six-seat shuttle with no steering wheel or pedals
• UMPSA, PIX Moving and Move Robotic signed a Robobus pilot agreement for Malaysia
• Hyundai's route to robotaxis fits the Waymo system and lidar onto an existing model

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Fleet, leasing and distribution

• The average new car in France cost €34,600 in 2025, up 29% since 2019
• The French market has lost nearly 25% of its volume since 2019, driving dealers toward BYD, MG, XPENG and Geely
• Aftersales is the entry ticket: GAC offers an eight-year vehicle and battery warranty and parts in under 36 hours
• Professional buyers measure working days completed, not specifications, as with the Renault Trafic E-Tech's 470 km range
• Safety is a top criterion for 93% of French consumers
• Renault Group's fleet experts met on long-term rental, TCO and AI

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Suppliers and technology showcases

• The PFA Fabrique de l'Innovation stand had 12 partner companies, including Valeo, FORVIA and OPmobility
• Goodyear supplied custom tires for the Opel STX Concept and Peugeot RCZ Vision
• Valeo's third-generation LiDAR delivers 12.5 million points per second
• FORVIA's Compact Exhaust System frees space for larger PHEV and EREV batteries
• Tier 1 suppliers had less visibility than at Beijing or Shanghai

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Thanks to Frédéric Gross, Ivan SEGAL, Robert Keszte, Nicolas Banchet, Travis Parman, Guenther Mendl, Dr. Andrej Levin, Romain Flattet, Xavier HORENT, Ruth Peters, Franck Vignard-Rosez, Duc Tran, Waleed Aqdas, Jovan Mijailovic, Peter Chippendale, Muhammad Aizzat Zakaria, Stéphane Lagresle, Piet Ameloot, Felipe Munoz, Penny Peng, Pascal Cerruti, Michael Perschke, Arthur Darde, Jules Fabbri, Benjamin Beaudet, Mathis Combaz, Jenny Fu, Subrahmanyam KVJ, Cedric LACOUR, Markus Schiemenz, Aleksandr Nagornyi, Stephane ALBER, Nicolas DAVILLER, Rochdi Saadellah, May Thu Hlaing, Christophe MEUNIER, Weichieh LIN, Munish Harinkhede and Xi GAO and everyone else who contributed insights to this edition.

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