We just finished our first day of IAA Munich, and this article provides a few valuable tips, along with our first impressions.
If you are new to the IAA Munich, it is Germany’s effort to revitalise the car show concept following the pandemic. When the site in Frankfurt became uncertain, Munich stepped in to offer its city centre as a free-access public venue, along with the infrastructure of its expo area for industry meetings.
The IAA 2021 followed a brand-new concept: a so-called Summit was hosted in traditional exhibition halls while the open space area in the city centre offered free access to the public. The two sites are connected by an excellent public transportation system, providing swift access between locations. For us, it took about 20-25 minutes to get to Odeonsplatz from the West side of the expo area, with one stopover in the U-Bahn.
This year, the Summit is focused on professionals and journalists with steep ticket prices for the public. This is the arena of professionals, and while the 6 halls also hosted a few brands, they concentrate on media presentations of new models and industry meetings.
If you are not planning to strike wholesale deals on car dashboards, LED panels, or charging networks, you won’t miss much here. Unlike in 2021, there is very little of interest for an average car geek in the exhibition halls of the Expo area.
This article will focus on the sights for average visitors, as you will most likely only attend the open space. This feels entirely new, apart from traditional car shows, and more like street festivals, with people wandering between booths and sites. We recommend installing the IAA App, as it proved worthwhile when navigating between locations scattered throughout the city, which are often 10-15 minutes away.
Each booth follows a different concept: some reserved the entire space and limited access via gates, resulting in long waiting lines (like at Audi and BMW), while for other stages, unrestricted access could lead to cramped mass scenes. It might be worth picking a less affluent timeslot, like a Tuesday or Thursday morning.
This year, car brands went all in on the 2021 concept, putting most of their chips on the public access event. All brands focus their main efforts here; most do not even exhibit at the Summit. This is the place to sell cars (and brands), so expect a nice booth with some interesting add-ons and freebies to lure visitors. Mercedes and Cupra even maintained a small shop in the centre.
The leading actors are, of course, the local heroes, all located near the Odeon Square. Mercedes is among the nearest, and their highlight is the world premiere of the all-new GLC and the record-breaking orange concept car showcasing Merc’s EQ Technology (in both Summit (Hall 3) and in the city), joined by the Mercedes-Benz line-up in the Open Space at the Apothekenhof. We did not get to see their light show, but the press materials seemed promising.
We particularly appreciated the booth of Cupra, not just for its impressive exterior design and stylish interior, but also for its brand-shaped bakery products.
Also punching well above their weight, Lucid came with both their cars showcased in an elegant booth.
BMW is as local as it gets, and of course, they came prepared. Their stylish stage in the Summit (Hall A1) was used to unveil the all-new iX3, the first car of its Neue Klasse series.
In the Open Space area, the BMW Group reserved pretty much the entire Max-Joseph-Platz near the opera house, covering an area of 3,000 m2.
They also promised that BMW Welt and the BMW Museum will play their part in the event. However, we did not notice much when we paid a visit to BMW’s headquarters. In fact, the Museum did not even bother to open on Monday, not to mention BMW Classics, which outright threw us out, only dealing with paying visitors. For the most local hero, we can not say that BMW outdid itself.
In fact, the VW Group put more effort into their presence in Munich. Most brands could build their own stage following the style of their preference. A prime example is Cupra mentioned above.
The VW brand actually did much less, with a small and simple yet functional pavilion. Just a corner away, Porsche and Audi paired up in the Wittelsbacherplatz, following a completely divergent concept. Porsche built several smaller booths on their part, allowing free circulation on their part of the square. In contrast, Audi built a single pavilion that imposed a long waiting line to access Audi’s world premiere concept car, which heralds a new design era.
As for Porsche, the visual focus was clearly the giant Porsche crest, covering the front of the stage. This design element made its debut here, but the company is counting on it in the long run. We also wanted to highlight how functional the Porsche space has proven to be. Café, water dispenser (with free aluminium Porsche flasks distributed every hour), merch shop (which could save you in heavy rain, provided you have 70-150 euros for an emergency umbrella). This stage is an absolute must.
Going down the Ludwigstraße, you will find many exciting booths, each offering a different spectacle, like Opel’s racing simulators or BYD’s novelty premium brand Denza.
We also welcomed the return of Volvo, joining its fellow premium brand, Polestar. Volvo even moved into the Summit with a small stage, while Polestar premiered its new Polestar 5 model.
Now we take a rhetorical break to continue with the most memorable cars.
