They say auto shows are dead and irrelevant, but that hasn’t stopped local automakers BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen from scheduling critical EV launches at next month’s IAA Mobility show in Munich.
Along with France’s Renault and plenty of Chinese offerings, BMW will give the long-touted iX3 “Neue Klasse” its first public airing in its hometown on September 8.
The Neue Klasse architecture’s first production model, which replaces the outgoing iX3 EV, and BMW is leaning hard into its sustainability and use of recycled and upcycled materials.
It won’t be the only mid-sized crossover SUV in the spread-out, city-wide show, though, with Mercedes-Benz also debuting the next generation of its GLC.
The GLC has overtaken the C-Class to become the best selling Mercedes-Benz model of them all, and the new generation will include an EV, so it will compete with the iX3 in the market, as well as in Munich’s show stands. It will use an upgraded 800-Volt electric architecture to do it, too, along with a new, dedicated electric-vehicle platform, dubbed MB.EA, which will also sit beneath the all-electric C-Class sedan and wagon.
Volkswagen will also deliver the near-production version of its critically acclaimed ID2, whose design throws back to the classical shape of its early Golf models, and finally separates the brand’s EV offerings from their awkward MEB-architecture proportions.
It will also show the next full generation of the T-Roc SUV, which outsells the traditional European favourite Golf in its domestic market.
And Renault will show the sixth generation of the Clio hatch, which has been outselling the Golf all year, too.
The other Bavarian carmaker, Audi, won’t have a new production car in Munich but they will try to regain some of its lost lustre with a two-seat concept car. The company has been pushing its TT design heritage hard in the last month, so expect something along those lines from its ex-JLR design head Massimo Frascella.
Germany’s former GM brand, Opel, is now owned by Stellantis, but will still show a forerunner of its next Corsa small car, but it won’t be a realistic interpretation…
It is planned to be a big-horsepower concept called the Corsa GSE Vision Gran Turismo, with at least 700 horsepower, which will make its debut in the Gran Turismo racing simulator game this year - well before its debut as a production car.
Opel will be the lone Stellantis brand with a display in Munich, where it will show a preview of the next-generation Corsa small car with a race-inspired electric hot hatch concept said to deliver up to 800 hp. The concept, called the Corsa GSE Vision Gran Turismo, will also be a model in the Gran Turismo 7 racing video game this autumn, Opel said Aug. 20.
Hyundai continues its charge into EVs in Europe with the showing of the Ioniq 2 small SUV, while stablemate Kia will show the EV2 (based off similar architecture).
Geely-owned Polestar will show its electric 5 sedan, with up to 900 horsepower and sub 30-minute charging times, but with added costs from EU tariffs, because it will be fully imported from China.
Volvo, which spawned Polestar as a performance offshoot, will show its ES90 sedan, with up 435 miles of electric range and a 10-80% charge in 20 minutes.
Leapmotor (20% owned by Stellantis) will show the electric B05 small car, while the Volkswagen Group’s Spanish offshoot Cupra will show its Raval electric hatchback.
China’s biggest automaker, BYD, will try to show it’s getting a handle on European car culture by delivering a station wagon version of the Seal 06 midsizer, aiming down the barrel of the stalwart Volkswagen Passat wagon.