Geneva Motor Show returns in smaller format

Geneva: car show returns, but in a smaller format Keystone-SDA

The Geneva International Motor Show is making a comeback, though in a more scaled-down version. From March 7 to 9, autoXpérience Genève will showcase around 200 new cars from 30 different brands.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The event “will let enthusiasts and prospective buyers discover, compare, test drive and purchase their next vehicle,” the organisers wrote in a statement on Tuesday. Additionally, there will be various activities, including race car driving simulators and fun trails for children.

“This is not a return of the Geneva Motor Show,” said Claude Membrez, general manager of Palexpo and co-organiser of the new event with the Geneva section of the Swiss Professional Automobile Union, in an interview with Swiss newspaper 20 Minutes.

+ Read more: The end of the Geneva Motor Show may be near, warns auto expert

He noted that the previous show was “an important showcase for car sales,” and its absence has impacted both importers and local dealers. “autoXpérience mainly aims to support local dealers,” Membrez added. Organisers hope to attract 10,000 visitors.

The Geneva International Motor Show has a long history in Geneva, with the first edition held in 1905. Since 1982, it has taken place at the Palexpo exhibition centre. The highest attendance was in 2005, with 748,000 visitors. However, the 2020 edition was cancelled just four days before it was due to start because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the next three editions were also cancelled for the same reason. After last year’s smaller event, the organisers announced the show’s final closure, saying it had run its course.

Translated from Italian with DeepL/sp

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].