Paris Motorshow 2016, It’s Electric!

This year’s Paris Motorshow will be a watershed moment in automotive history. We will see electric vehicles for the masses and the beginning of the end of the combustion engine.

Electric vehicles have been around for some time. But what was on offer was only attainable for a niche group of buyers. Only a few drivers could either afford a Tesla or could live with the relatively short range of other EVs on sale.

That is about to change. The Opel Ampera-e will be the first all electric vehicle on sale that is both affordable and has a range that makes it practical to operate. But that is not really news. The real news is that almost all manufacturers will be showing electric cars and many will have Electric concept cars on show that will be on sale at dealerships in the next couple of years.

And that is a big change. Only about a year ago most car manufacturers where still fully committed to the electric vehicle. It took two earth shaking events to change that. First there was the diesel scandal that started at Volkswagen. Many more car makers are now under suspicion of emissions fraud and none are delivering the low, published official emissions. On top of that, Tesla showed, by raking up over 400.000 pre-orders for their Model 3, that if you build an affordable longer range EV, customers will come.

These two main drivers, Tesla pre-orders and VW’s Dieselgate, have opened the eyes of auto executives. Many now realise that electric is the future and that there is a danger that their brand gets left behind if they too do not have competitive EVs on sale soon. So R&D and design labs have been extremely busy for the last 6 months or so. At this year’s Paris Motor show we will see the results of all that hard work.

Especially the German brands will come out guns blazing. As waiting for next year’s Frankfurt Motorshow is not an option and Geneva is too far out, this is the show to unveil the future. VW will lead this electric charge. With all that Money that will go to diesel lawsuits, Volkswagen cannot afford to bet on multiple horses. Whilst Diesel R&D investment has almost stopped and gasoline investment is lower, the VW Group is set to launch 20 electric vehicles in the coming 3 years. VW knows it needs to choose and they are going for electric.

Most brands are going in that same direction so expect a lot of electric news in Paris. At the same time there will a lot of combustion engine powered cars at this week’s Paris show. One wonders what will be on show in 2026…

Pieter Dorenbosch is a strategist, innovator and brand builder in international automotive marketing communications and CRM. He is the owner of OUTOFTHEDORENBOX were he coaches (mostly automotive) companies to rethink digital marketing and loyalty strategies. You can read other posts by his hand on the DORENBLOG.