Paris Motor Show 2026 retrospective: 518,372 visitors, 6,000 test drives and a longer 2028 edition

A labelled retrospective: how the 2026 Paris show closed

This is a retrospective of the 91st Mondial de l'Auto 2026, published after the event, not a report filed from Paris. DriveAgent did not attend, photograph or drive at the show. The account below rests on the organiser's closing statement dated 18 October 2026 and on subsequent reporting by French automotive outlets including L'argus, Automobile Magazine, Automobile Propre and Alter-Auto, with figures attributed throughout. The show ran at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from 12 to 18 October 2026, with 12 October reserved for accredited press and the six public days running from 13 to 18 October, according to the organiser's official practical-information page. ¹²

The organiser's closing release, dated 18 October 2026, reported 518,372 visitors over the six public days, more than 60 manufacturers and more than 100 exhibitors. L'argus reported the same total the following day, setting it against 508,007 visitors at the 2024 edition, an increase of 10,365 entries or roughly 2 per cent. Automobile Magazine and Alter-Auto reported the same comparison with the same 2024 baseline. ¹³⁴⁶

L'argus calculated an average of about 86,000 visitors per public day, describing the 91st edition as one of the most attended since the event's 1898 origins. Show director Serge Gachot told L'argus that strong Friday attendance offset a weaker Saturday, which he attributed to demonstrations and damage in Paris and other French cities. These are the show director's own explanations, reported by L'argus, not independently audited attendance data. ³

More manufacturers, including a strong Chinese presence

The organiser reported more than 60 manufacturers and more than 100 exhibitors at the 2026 show. L'argus counted more than 60 manufacturers against 40 in 2024, while Alter-Auto and Automobile Magazine put the 2024 figure at 48. The difference between those two baselines is a discrepancy between outlets; the organiser's own release states only the 2026 totals. Automobile Magazine reported that about twenty of the more than 60 manufacturers came from China. ¹³⁴⁶

Automobile Propre listed returning brands including Fiat, Hyundai, Mercedes and Opel, alongside newcomers seeking visibility, notably the Chinese Chery and the American Lucid. It also noted notable absences, including Toyota and BMW, which it reported had withdrawn citing a difficult financial situation. Alter-Auto named BYD, Leapmotor, OMODA & JAECOO, Geely and Zeekr among the Chinese brands promoting electric and hybrid models for the European market. ⁴⁷

Alter-Auto's retrospective highlights the blend of concepts and near-production cars: Citroën's electric reinterpretation of the 2 CV as a concept pointing to a future production model targeted for around 2028 with a starting-price aim near 15,000 euros, Peugeot's RCZ Vision concept, Renault's E-Space Concept, Alpine's A310 Vision, and the Dacia Striker crossover listed from 23,490 euros plus a new-generation electric Spring. These are the outlet's summaries of event-era reveals, and concepts should not be read as production models; the French-market prices are as reported by Alter-Auto and carry no Australian availability implication. ⁴

Test drives took centre stage

A defining feature of the 2026 edition was hands-on driving. The organiser reported that a test-drive centre run by agency La Squadra offered close to 100 models and that 6,000 test drives had been completed by the show's close. L'argus reported the same 6,000 figure and noted it was more than double the 2014 record of 45 cars available for testing. Alter-Auto and Automobile Magazine both set the growth against 2024: more than 3,300 test drives then, an increase of about 80 per cent this year, a rise well above the 2 per cent growth in attendance. ¹³⁴⁶

The headline new experience was supervised automated driving, presented by the organiser as level 2++ and offered on open roads for the first time at the show, in partnership with Deloitte and with Electra handling vehicle charging. The organiser's release says more than 2,700 rides were on the programme; Automobile Magazine explicitly cautions that this is the number of rides planned, not a verified count of demonstrations completed, and expo.paris likewise lists 2,700 within the 6,000 completed drives. L'argus, by contrast, described the 6,000 total as including 2,700 autonomous-driving runs. The distinction matters: the number of supervised-driving rides actually taken was not independently verified. ¹³⁵⁶

Alter-Auto adds a safety qualification that the outlet itself made: a level 2 system, however advanced, does not make a vehicle fully autonomous, and the driver must keep monitoring and remain able to retake control immediately. It also reported, as organiser claims, that around half of visitors who took a test drive went on to sign an order; L'argus attributes that 50 per cent figure to Serge Gachot. Neither figure has been independently audited. ³⁴

Orders, media reach and the industry agenda

The organiser's closing release said manufacturers recorded record orders during the edition and described the audience as visitors with genuine purchase intent. However, as Alter-Auto notes, no consolidated order volume was published in the official closing statement, so the commercial outcome cannot be measured against 2024 from these documents. L'argus quotes Gachot saying every exhibitor claimed more leads and orders than in 2024, and that more than a quarter of visitors intended to change cars within twelve months; both are show-director statements. ¹³⁴

On reach beyond the gates, the organiser reported 5,000 press and content-creator accreditations, half of them international, more than 21 million social-media views during the event month, and 3.2 million website views across 1.2 million sessions and 820,000 active users. L'argus reported the same accreditation figures and noted that two years earlier about 75 per cent of accredited media were French. ¹³

The professional side included the Paris Automotive Summit organised by the PFA. L'argus reported about 3,500 attendees at the summit on Tuesday 13 October, with Volkswagen Group's Oliver Blume, Stellantis's Antonio Filosa and Renault's François Provost among the speakers. The organiser also described its conference programme with Google and BCG, running since 2022, covering AI in the customer experience, assisted and autonomous driving, software-defined vehicles and competitiveness, plus ten conferences in a dedicated day with Capgemini spanning AI, software-defined vehicles and engineering and production transformation. ¹³

L'argus also reported a political dimension: 37 political figures visited, against 17 in 2024, including several candidates for the 2027 presidential election, with electrification, fuel prices and European manufacturing among the themes. President Emmanuel Macron's last show visit in office was also covered, with L'argus quoting his remarks on the recent agreement with China fixing an annual import quota of 350,000 hybrid cars. ³

What visitors paid and what the show offered

According to the organiser's official practical-information page, 2026 online tickets cost 20 euros for an adult weekday, 22 euros for a weekend adult, 17 euros for the evening nocturne sessions, and 13 euros for children aged 7 to 17, students and visitors with disability entitlements. On-the-gate prices were 22 euros weekday and nocturne and 24 euros weekend. Opening hours ran from 9:30am to 8:00pm Tuesday to Thursday, to 10:00pm with last entry at 9:00pm on Friday and Saturday, and 9:00am to 6:30pm on Sunday, with the Friday and Saturday nocturnes staged in illuminated pavilions. ²⁵

Beyond the test drives, the organiser described a 700-square-metre UnLimited space for exceptional cars, which expo.paris places in hall 7.1 alongside the conference programme, a Mario Kart World competition with L'olivier Assurance pairing gaming with road-risk awareness, DJ sets from Radio FG, live music, two nocturne evenings with laser shows, and the PFA's La Fabrique de l'Innovation education space. L'argus reported that 18,000 people were mobilised to stage the event: 9,000 on stand construction and 9,000 running it through the week. ¹³⁵

2028: a longer format, announced with caveats

In the organiser's closing remarks dated 18 October 2026, show director Serge Gachot announced that the 2028 edition would adopt an extended format including two weekends and a new layout, to accommodate more visitors. L'argus reports that the public opening will run for ten days in mid-October 2028, four more than 2026, that the press day will fall on a Thursday, and that completed works on the Triangle tower will open up halls 1, 2.1, 2.2, 3 and 8, lifting total exhibition space from 67,000 to 83,500 square metres, a 25 per cent increase. Gachot told L'argus that several manufacturers were on a waiting list in 2026 for lack of space and that many brands had already indicated their intention to return. ¹³

A venue listing at expo.paris schedules the Mondial de l'Auto 2028 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from Thursday 19 to Sunday 29 October 2028, eleven days including the weekends of 21–22 and 28–29 October, and says the show director is targeting one million visitors. The 2028 floor plan, opening hours, exhibitor list and ticketing are not yet published, and there will be no 2027 edition given the show's biennial cadence. French outlets urge caution on the extension: Automobile Magazine and Automobile Propre both recall that an extra weekend was floated after the 2024 edition for 2026 and did not eventuate, with Automobile Propre suggesting manufacturers may prefer the tighter format to contain costs. Those 2028 dates and targets are forward-looking announcements, not confirmed arrangements. ³⁵⁶⁷