18:24 06-08-2026
Paris Motor Show 2026: eight Stellantis brands, 60 cars and the return of the 2CV
Stellantis more than doubles its Paris presence with a 5340 square metre stand, while Citroen previews the electric 2CV due in 2028 for under 15,000 euros. BMW and Mini have pulled out of the show.
The 2026 Paris Motor Show will put two opposing movements on the same floor. Stellantis is more than doubling its presence compared with the 2024 edition: eight brands will take a 5340 square metre stand in Hall 6 and show more than 60 cars. At the same time Chinese manufacturers are using Paris for a full-scale push towards European buyers — while BMW and Mini have walked away from the show at the last minute.
The show runs from 12 to 18 October at Porte de Versailles, with Monday reserved for press and industry and the public admitted from Tuesday. Stellantis will be represented by Alfa Romeo, Citroen, DS Automobiles, Fiat, Lancia, Leapmotor, Opel and Peugeot — for Opel this is a return to Paris after ten years. Among the confirmed premieres is the Lancia Gamma crossover, which takes the brand back into the D segment as a hybrid and an EV built in Melfi. Next to it stands the Leapmotor B03, making its European debut, joined by the B03X crossover and the C-segment B05. Organisers hope to beat the 2024 result, when 508,007 people came through the doors.
The emotional centrepiece should be the successor to the Citroen 2CV. In Paris the brand will show a concept already very close to the production car, and that is not press guesswork but the words of Citroen boss Xavier Chardon in an interview with the SP-X agency. The production version arrives in 2028, exactly 80 years after the original “Duck” made its debut. It will be purely electric, built in Europe, and Chardon has put the price below 15,000 euros. The basis will be the future eCar platform.
What has not been named officially: body style, dimensions, battery capacity, range and the exact assembly site — any figures there are premature. It is also worth closing the popular theory about the Leapmotor T03 platform, because Citroen is talking about its own architecture rather than a Chinese donor. Besides the 2CV successor, the brand may show the Elo compact van concept and will bring its current range up to the C5 Aircross.
The second storyline is the Chinese expansion, and the participants split into two groups. BYD, Leapmotor, Changan and Maxus are building on a European presence they already have. Chery together with Omoda and Jaecoo, plus Lynk & Co, Zeekr and Li Auto, are stepping onto the Paris stage for the first time, and for Li Auto this is the European start altogether. Toyota, Nissan and Mazda were not on the exhibitor lists as of 6 August, while Honda, Hyundai and Kia will be there.
For Chinese companies a motor show is no longer simply about cars shipped in from China. Chery has opened a European operations centre in Barcelona with its own research institute, on top of the engineering centre in Frankfurt, and builds cars at the former Nissan plant in the Zona Franca district together with Spanish partner Ebro. To Paris it brings the Omoda 9, the Jaecoo 7 and the new Tiggo 3, whose production is being localised in Spain. Zeekr and Lynk & Co lean on the European infrastructure of the Geely group: in France, Lynk & Co sells through the Volvo dealer network.
The conspicuous exception is BMW. In January the group officially confirmed three brands for Paris: BMW, Mini and BMW Motorrad. In the summer that decision was reversed, with weak first-quarter results given as the reason. Along with the Bavarians, Paris loses the Neue Klasse stand with the electric i3 saloon and the iX3 crossover.
Paris has not become a fully “Chinese” show. The largest display belongs to European Stellantis, Renault is bringing Renault, Dacia, Alpine and Renault Pro+, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Kia are all announced, and Volvo returns after twelve years away. But the way the floor space is divided shows who is investing more aggressively in launching new brands and models in Europe, and the BMW withdrawal only underlines the picture. The final balance will be clear once the full list of exhibitors and premieres appears closer to the opening.