After the last Auto Show in Geneva, “we expected a rebound”

Faced with disinterest from car manufacturers, the organizers of the Geneva Auto Show have decided to pull the plug. After the last “more compact” edition of 2024, “we expected a rebound”, Alexandre de Senarclens and Sandro Mesquita explained to RTS. “Unfortunately, the auto industry was not ready to come back.”

“We hoped that the 2024 edition of the Geneva Auto Show, which had a certain success, would allow a real rebound, but we realized that unfortunately the automobile industry was not ready to come back,” explained Friday in the Forum show the president of the Automobile Show foundation, Alexandre de Senarclens.

“We aimed to double the number of exhibitors compared to those we had in 2024. We hoped in particular for a return of historic European manufacturers, primarily German.”

>> Reread: The Geneva Motor Show will disappear after almost 120 years of existence And The Auto Show makes a mixed return four years later in Geneva

All trade fairs, whether Paris or Munich, are in crisis and experiencing difficulties, notes the man who is also a Geneva PLR deputy. “But the particular difficulty of the Geneva Motor Show is that we are not backed by national industries and we do not have a large market. This was an advantage in the past, because we were seen as a neutral place where it “There was no competition between Germans, French and Italians. But in 2024 and for future editions, this is a weakness that the Paris or Munich shows do not have.”

Sandro Mesquita, general director of the event, draws the same assessment in the 7:30 p.m. The competition is fierce. “Car brands are choosing which platforms they want to go on. The sector is also under pressure.”

Fair in Qatar?

Could the Geneva Auto Show be reborn in Qatar? “It is under discussion. There is an interest on the part of Qatar to continue the adventure. In what form, under what name, all of this is still to be discussed, but it will not be in the hands of the foundation which will be liquidated”, declared Alexandre de Senarclens.

“Qatar was an opportunity that allowed us to restart in Geneva,” notes Sandro Mesquita. “After the cancellation of 2020, the foundation did not have the financial capacity to organize a new show in Geneva. This partnership helped us to relaunch Geneva and was not intended to compete with Geneva, on the contrary. We are on two different exhibition concepts.

>> The full interview with Sandro Mesquita in the 7:30 p.m.:

Interview with Sandro Mesquita, general director of the Geneva International Motor Show, about the dissolution of the event in French-speaking Switzerland / 7:30 p.m. / 3 min. / yesterday at 7:30 p.m.

End of an era

Today, specialists believe that few car shows still matter. It’s not so much the visitors who get tired of it, but rather the builders who turn away from it. Times and marketing strategies have indeed changed for manufacturers. These major exhibitions are very expensive, whereas today, we can launch a new range of vehicles on digital media. Through digital, the audience is much larger, for much less money.