Paris Motor Show, October 12–18, 2026, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles

What catches my attention about the opening of the 91st Paris Motor Show is how much of the future arrives carrying something from the past. The show opened for the press on October 12 at Porte de Versailles, with the public following on October 13, and the announcements have that familiar motor-show mixture of engineering, theatre and optimism. Everyone has a new chapter to announce. Everyone is ready for tomorrow. Yet some of the most interesting cars reach backwards for their names, their proportions and the little visual details that make us recognize them before we have read a word about their batteries. I rather like that. A car should give you something to respond to before it asks you to understand its operating system.

Renault is particularly good at this game. Its Paris presentation brings together the E-Space Concept, the Renault 8 Gordini Concept and the Renault 4 JP4x4 Concept, alongside cars such as the Twingo E-Tech electric and Renault 5. Just reading those names sets off associations. Family transport, small French cars, a pair of white stripes, something cheerful that does not need to look aggressive to have character. The Gordini name carries more weight with me than another promise about a connected driving experience. But affection is only the beginning of the transaction. An old name gets the new car a sympathetic hearing; the new car still has to deserve it.

The E-Space interests me for a slightly different reason. I would like the industry to spend more time thinking about how people actually inhabit cars. Families bring coats, bags, crumbs, charging cables and things nobody remembers putting there. Someone wants a window open while someone else wants the air conditioning. A passenger falls asleep. The boot is full before the journey has properly started. Renault describes its concept as a fresh interpretation of family mobility in the electric age, and that is a worthwhile subject. I would want to know whether the cleverness survives ordinary use. A beautiful cabin is easy to admire when it contains nothing.

Then there is the smart #2, making its world premiere as an electric two-seater. Here, at least, the basic proposition is immediately understandable: a small car for places where space is scarce. Short overhangs, wheels pushed towards the corners, and a split tailgate with a lower section that can become a loading platform or seat. That last detail is the sort of thing I enjoy. It suggests someone has thought about an action rather than a slogan. Put something down, rearrange a bag, sit for a moment. There is room in the car business for modest conveniences, though they rarely get the largest lettering on the stand.

I have a soft spot for cars that know what size they ought to be. The return of a two-seat Smart feels especially appropriate in Paris, even if the economics of building and selling a very small electric car are another matter entirely. I would be curious about the price, the ride and how much luggage it can swallow without negotiation. Still, a compact car with a clear purpose holds my interest more readily than a large vehicle trying to cover every possible use. Sometimes the useful question is simply whether this would make a daily journey easier. No grand philosophy needed.

Geely’s appearance tells a different story. Geely Auto, Lynk & Co and Zeekr are presenting themselves together at the group’s first group-level Paris Motor Show outing, with the Monjaro EM-i, Lynk & Co 07GT and Zeekr 9X leading the display. That is quite a collection of names to absorb over a morning coffee. The company is covering mainstream, premium and luxury positions, and says combined European sales across the three brands exceeded 10,000 vehicles in September. What interests me is the breadth of the effort. These are increasingly elaborate attempts to become part of the ordinary European shopping list, with different badges ready for different budgets.

My enthusiasm would come with some very mundane questions. Where is the nearest workshop? How long does a replacement part take? Who answers when a warning light appears and the app has nothing helpful to say? Motor shows are excellent at introducing a car and less good at introducing the person who will look after it five years later. For a brand still establishing itself, that person matters enormously. I can enjoy an unfamiliar design and still want a thoroughly reassuring answer about servicing. In fact, the more unfamiliar the badge, the more ordinary I want the ownership experience to be.

GAC seems aware of that gap. Its opening-day announcements included the global debut of the AION UT Cross and the European introduction of its GAC CARE+ service brand. There was also a partnership signing with Chelsea Football Club, with Claude Makélélé taking part and signing an autograph for a robotic “young fan.” That is a wonderfully motor-show detail. Somewhere between the car, the football legend and the robot, a manufacturer is trying to make itself memorable. I can understand the reasoning. People who have never discussed a GAC may have spent years discussing Chelsea, and familiarity has to begin somewhere.

But I find myself more interested in the service announcement than the robot, which probably says something about my age. Football can start a conversation; a dependable dealer can keep it going. The public will eventually judge GAC by appointments kept, parts supplied and problems resolved. Those things will never look as lively in a launch photograph, yet they are what turn a new arrival into a brand somebody recommends to a friend. The spectacle has its job. So does the workshop.

That is the thread I keep coming back to in this Paris opening. Renault is asking memory to help sell a new generation of cars. Smart is recovering a size and shape that gave it a reason to exist. Geely and GAC are working to make newer names feel like credible, lasting choices. There are concepts to admire and announcements to pick apart, but the questions I would carry into Porte de Versailles are fairly simple. Which of these cars would I still enjoy looking at after the novelty wore off? Which makes everyday life easier? And which company would I trust once the launch presentation was over and I needed something fixed? By October 18, the lights and premieres will have done their work. The cars will have a much longer assignment.