Manufacturers stages are the hearth and soul of a car show. Most people actually want to see cars, whether they want to buy a new one or simply to see what their favourite brand is up to. But here comes the first problem…
For the past 10 years, there has been a gradual disappearance of brands from car shows. The IAA was particularly affected, as the local brands conjured such a show, that no import brand could match and often just bailed out.
The IAA Munich could not turn the tides. In fact, a few more brands decided to abstain from Munich, limiting the show to the local heroes, a few exotics and the Koreans. Also, the ones who came, took things back quite a bit. In Munich, there was nothing comparable to the noble five-story Frankfurt hall of Mercedes. At the same time, most manufacturers prepared a show in the city of Munich as well, in addition to the exhibitions halls of the Summit area. It was a pity that the public show only lasted a long weekend.
BMW did not overplay its home advantage
If there is one company that could take the lead at the IAA 2021, it should be the Bavarians. And indeed, they provided a comprehensive package with one of the most prominent stages in the Summit area, and several pavilions in the city centre.
Their main stage was dedicated to the electric future, with the i4 electric sedan taking centre stage, surrounded by the three specimens of the brand new iX.
The two models can’t be more different. The i4 looks like a 4 Gran Coupé (this model also had a premiere at the IAA) with an electric drivetrain.
It is like the answer of the “real” car manufacturers to the Model 3. If you are a BMW owner, and you have to change to full electric (“because why else would you?”), then here is the essence of BMW for you but with an electric drivetrain.
To illustrate that BMW did such a thing before it was cool, the Bavarians showcased a classic BMW with an electric drivetrain, made for the 1972 Olympic games.
The other big hit of the show was the iX, a car that had its premiere in Munich. Officially, this is an electric mid-size luxury SUV, but it feels much more like an overgrown i3 than an X5, which is not a good thing.
The interior is modern and spacious but somehow lacks the coolness of previous BMW interiors. It feels like sitting in a monospace, not in a BMW.
In the city centre, BMW occupied a square with three smaller pavilions.
The largest was dedicated it the brand-new Vision Circular concept, which was probably the worst BMW concept I have seen. The exterior suggests it’s just another futuristic supermini, but the interior leaves no doubt that every bit of sense of style left the building…
I know the press releases speak of recycled Levander, but this pink material feels so much out of touch with coolness or modernism that can only be attributed to bad taste. 
There is simply no excuse for it.
The second pavilion was dedicated to some vague urban “whatever”, and the second one showed two electric motorbikes.
Additionally, Mini came up with a smaller stage in the Summit, and a pavilion in the city that was a bit out of the path, so we missed it.
Mercedes showcased the near future, along with the more distant one.
Mercedes provided the best stages in most car shows, and this year, they also strived to surpass the others. The booth in the Summit had it all, important premiers (EQE), not so important premiers (C Class All-Terrain), schematics, models, simulators and upstairs a lounge with high-end cars.
One of the most jaw-dropping presence was the electric EQ hypercar, successor to the Project One concept, whereby Merc replaced the F1 derived engine with an electric drivetrain.
Those who were allowed to the private gallery upstairs, could see the new bullet-proof S Class and the recently launched Maybach, both based on the most recent S Class, right on time for the 100th anniversary of the first Maybach car.
The gallery also held an electrified version of the iconic G Class off-road model.
In addition to the Summit, Mercedes’ downtown stage was the most impressive place in the city.
It was large, stylish and diverse, with Easter eggs like the new Maybach electric SUV concept and the electric van.
It was strange to see the still omnipotent Mercedes F-1 car side-lined, and only presented the EQ Silver Arrow as decoration of the basement.
Volkswagen’s hybrid strategy
Volkswagen took the call for new approaches very seriously and put most of its chips on the downtown exhibition space. In fact, most brands of the conglomerate did not even showcase in the Summit.
From the VW group, only Volkswagen built a stage in the Summit, and they were among the few local brands who showed real production cars in the Summit hall, albeit the focus was on its world premiere concept, the ID.Life.
The other brands of the VW Group were absent from the Summit and only participated downtown.
These stages however stayed far behind the presence at major car shows, except for Seat’s Cupra, who punched well above its weight.
Porsche’s sublime concept cars stole the show
Porsche’s downtown chambers had it all, despite the moderate size of the exhibition space. They opened a bar with free water distributed in very cool looking branded Porsche flasks.
The open stage featured two very impressive concept cars, one of them had a premiere here. The Mission R concept car combines racing tech with environmental trends.
The car is equipped with two newly developed electric motors delivering up to 800 kW (1,088 PS).
The other car is the 919 Street, from the collection of “unseen” concepts. The 1:1 clay model is from 2017, and it used tech from the Porsche 919 Hybrid race car.
The idea was obviously to make the LMP1 tech road legal as a true hypercar. It is a pity that it never saw production.
Audi did not even try to play the local hero
Audi erected a magnificent pavilion dubbed the House of Progress, where visitors can discover the electric Audi Grandsphere concept car.
The current electric models from Audi’s line-up were available for test drives in front of the pavilion, including the electric Audi RS e-tron GT and the new Audi Q4 e-tron.
Honestly, this seemed like the spartan approach, where Audi used the available exhibition space primarily to impress but also to fish for customers at the test drive booth.
Here we take a rhetorical break to continue with the import brands.
For an overview of the show, check back to the landing article:
