The Paris Motor Show—Mondial—finished last Sunday with a new momentum. Many more automakers were doing their best show ‘n’ tell compared to the previous show, including German ones (VW, Audi, BMW); American ones (Cadillac, Ford), and Chinese ones, some of them brand-new, including Forthing, Aito, and Skyworth. This week’s newsletter is fully dedicated to this exhibition; we’re taking an in-depth look at selected cars we saw, with particular emphasis on interior matters.
Overall, interiors are being executed with CMF perspective in mind. Softer surface are more common on upper doors and under the dashboard beltline. But sustainability is not really visible, unless it is explicitly mentioned in literature.
Displays are getting wider, but it seems we are reaching a plateau, and that pillar-to-pillar displays will not become universal or ubiquitous. Smaller displays seem to be more popular, close to the windshield and more aligned with the driver’s field of view.
The Paris Summit reflects the strategic questions facing the industry. Big questions like, should electrification the only solution? If so, by when? Is there a place for alternative powertrain technologies like hydrogen, e-fuels, and biofuels? Renault, BMW, and Stellantis shared their views, together with Valeo and big ecosystem participants like Orange and TotalEnergies.
The grand DVN Interior Workshop at Torino ended yesterday, and we’ll tell you all about it next week.
Sincerely yours,