Not just the Volkswagen brand will be skipping this years Paris motor show, but all the other brands under their wing like Audi, Seat, Skoda and so on. Since the VW Group’s emissions-cheating scandal erupted in 2015, Europe’s largest automotive group has scaled back brand presentations at traditional car shows, including Detroit and Frankfurt, partly as a cost-cutting measure but also mirroring an sector trend.
“The Volkswagen brand is continually reviewing its participation in international motor shows,” the carmaker said on Thursday.
Instead of participating with its own stand at the Oct. 2-3 show, VW said it could host “various communications activities” in the French capital.
VW’s luxury division, Audi, last year trimmed its presence in Frankfurt, which hosts Europe’s largest auto show in alternate years. Audi will also skip the 2019 Detroit show, where the VW Group attended with a significantly reduced lineup this year. Many of the traditional industry gatherings have registered a drop in visitor numbers since the turn of this century.
Among the reasons for the decline is the emergence of technology as the main battleground for connected, autonomous cars, which has drawn exhibitors to competing events such as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
A spokesman for VW’s French operations said that Audi, sports car brand Porsche, Czech division Skoda and Spanish unit Seat are still due to attend the Paris show. VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, said the decision to skip the 2018 event does not mean the VW brand will also stay away from the next Paris show in 2020.
