Remember motor shows? By now they were supposed to be dead: too expensive to stage, too old-fashioned for buyers, and oh-so-easily replaced by livestreams and private events that give carmakers the power to manage every moment, well away from the Great Unwashed.
But apparently nobody told Paris. This year, the Mondial de l’Auto show, once a firm fixture of the car industry’s calendar, which perceived it as akin to Paris Fashion Week, came storming back with Europe’s ailing carmakers dusting off retro badges to show the world it doesn’t want to surrender to China.
The Chinese were on the ground too and out in force, bringing with them enormous electric SUVs, near-production hardware, and seriously fast EV charging tech. The contrast was awesome: Europe preparing modern cars throwing back to much-loved designs, with China threatening to deliver bigger, more imposing SUVs, and faster.
With all that tension in the air, and Chinese newcomers challenging the old guard on the latter’s home turf, Paris 2026 felt like a relevant show. And not just for the French: many of the machines below will end up in Australian showrooms, sooner rather than later. Here are nine highlights worth knowing about.
The Citroën 2CV returns in two years
Nobody expected the hottest ticket at Paris to be the spiritual successor to the simple, post-war car designed to cross a ploughed field without breaking eggs. Yet, the revived Citroën 2CV could be exactly what cheap EVs need: old-school charm and simplicity without a crazy price.
The 3.76-metre-long concept is a touch smaller than the original 2CV, but keeps its friendly face and unpretentious attitude. But gone is the wheezing old engine: Citroën wants to turn the 2CV into a Euro-built electric car within two years, targeting a price of €15,000 (~AU$24,000).
An Australian return for the Citroën brand isn’t confirmed, but this feels like a big deal for the French brand. This isn’t just another soulless EV. It made everybody smile (including this cynical writer).
Renault E-Space and 8 Gordini
French rival Renault brought with it two different flavours of nostalgia, and neither involved bolting a sporty badge onto an SUV, thankfully.
The E-Space imagines the original people mover as a glass-walled electric lounge, with six swivelling individual seats and a panoramic dashboard. Those in the back can gather around a table as if they’re on the TGV.
While the MPV remains a concept, and not a confirmed replacement for any of Renault’s crossovers, the thinking is wonderfully French: family transport doesn’t have to be so joyless.
For the dessert course, the Renault 8 Gordini returned as a rear-drive, electric sports coupé concept inspired by the feisty 1960s original. There’s no promise of production here, but with Renault having already revived the 4 and 5 models in Europe, you certainly wouldn’t dismiss the idea if there is sufficient interest.
BYD Atto 8 and Denza’s ‘Flash Charging’ revolution
While the European brands were big on feels, the Chinese again majored on the numbers. BYD’s stat: nine minutes.
That’s the claimed time it takes to stop and recharge the company’s new seven-seat Atto 8 SUV from 10 to 97% using dedicated BYD Flash Charging equipment that already exists in China, and which the marque plans to install around Europe – and Australia, one day soon.
A fully electric counterpart to the BYD Sealion 8 hybrid already sold here, the Atto 8 promises up to 653km range, while an AWD version makes 570kW of power.
Then there’s BYD’s luxury arm Denza. While its Australian range currently comprises Prado-like off-roaders, there are more sultry options coming. It doubled down on its elegant Z9GT wagon, which we’ll get, plus a spectacular Z supercar in coupé, spider convertible, and motorsport formats.
Alfa Romeo Cuorerosso previews a new V6 Giulia
For anybody worried that going electric means the death of the combustion engine is a certainty, Italy offered a clear rebuttal on the Paris show floor in the form of the slinky Cuorerosso GT sedan concept.
Previewing a next-generation Giulia, the Cuorerosso (Red Heart) is Italian drama on four wheels with sensuous bodywork and a driver-focussed cockpit. Intriguingly, parent company Stellantis flagged that it would again score a 2.9-litre petrol V6 engine, albeit this time with a full hybrid system to slash its emissions and boost fuel economy.
Unlike today’s Giulia Quadrifoglio, the Cuorerosso also introduces the idea of AWD for Alfa’s flagship sports sedan, with the four-leaf clover also pegged to make a return. While it’s still a design manifesto, Alfa Romeo talking V6s in 2026 is more than welcome.
XPeng’s G9L set to bring self-driving for seven to Australia
China’s responses to all the romanticism largely took the form of first-class, three-row lounges on wheels offering up sophisticated AI infotainment systems, advanced driver assistance and – perhaps surprisingly – high European price tags well above $100,000.
Chief among them was the XPeng G9L. It’s a 5.12m-long flagship SUV that will offer a choice of six or seven seats (the latter favoured for Australia), up to 591km of electric driving range, charging speeds below 12 minutes, and XPeng’s VLA 2.0 system, which is a rival to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving tech for hands-off navigation in city traffic.
In a move designed to beat EU tariffs, XPeng will even build the G9L in Europe…but not for Australia. Our version will be shipped from Guangzhou with the additional option of a range-extender hybrid powertrain offering 1200km of combined driving range.
Peugeot wants to roll out a range of wild electric sports cars
After a decade of building purely functional stuff, Peugeot has rediscovered what it used to be quite into: building sexy, squared-off, serious performance cars.
Hot on the heels of launching the e-208 GTi as a reborn 205 GTi hot hatch, Peugeot rolled into its home show with two more electric sports car concepts.
The outrageous E-T16 reimagines the 205 Turbo 16 rally weapon for an EV age, complete with swollen arches, a ferocious stance, and a scarcely believable 816 hp (608kW). We’re very comfortable with this Group B revival.
Also tantalising was the Vision RCZ, a sleek resurrection of Peugeot’s cult-favourite coupé model, promising 375kW of power, 600km of range, and the use of next-gen solid-state battery technology.
With Stellantis set to take over distribution of Peugeot in Australia, there’s hope we could see one or both in the future.
AVATR’s 06T sports wagon is on the way
Bringing a station wagon to Paris was perhaps the smartest way for unfamiliar Chinese brands to show they had a fluency for French and European sensibilities.
The AVATR 06T – a product of the premium arm of the Changan conglomerate – is such a car: a sleek electric shooting brake designed partially in Munich. It’s on the way to Australia in the second half of 2027 with a high-tech cabin and more than 700kW of power in flagship three-motor AWD form. It’ll have the Zeekr 7GT in its sights.
For buyers who prefer their luxury more apartment-sized, AVATR’s T09 premiered in Paris as an imposing six-seat plug-in hybrid SUV complete with a crystal bonnet ornament. It’s close to production and will also come to Australia – albeit not until 2028.
The original Smart is back
Those of us around in the 1990s remember when a Smart could park nose-in to the kerb. After years of pivoting to SUVs, the brand – now owned by Mercedes-Benz and China’s Geely – has rediscovered its roots.
The production Smart #2 is an electric two-seater hatchback that is just 2.7 metres long, with rear-wheel drive, a tiny 6.9-metre turning circle, and a target electric range of 290km despite its genuinely small footprint. For city-dwellers, that’s useful.
While the looks are evolutionary from the original, the underpinnings aren’t. They’re new, with a bespoke platform, sophisticated rear suspension and Benz-led engineering.
Fiat’s Multiplay ute is the anti-Ranger Raptor
The contribution of Italy’s Fiat was gloriously strange. The 4.45-metre Multiplay concept combines seven-seat MPV seating, SUV proportions and the ability to transform into an open-tray ute in one shape-shifting package. Its sliding rear body module converts the three-row layout into a four-seat pick-up at the touch of a button.
There’s even a specific seat in the Multiplay designed with pets in mind. While this isn’t yet destined for production as shown, at least somebody is asking: “what if?” in the family car segment. Bring back weird cars!
The Multiplay was part of a Stellantis creativity offensive that also brought the cheap-as-chips Multiplina, plus the angular Opel STX wagon concept and a DS F3VER model.
Audi’s A2 returns as an efficiency superstar
The coolest Audi on display in Paris was a forest-green A6 Allroad diesel. But the second coolest was the new A2 e-tron, which represents the rebirth of one of the most sophisticated cars of the 1990s – the all-aluminium A2 city car we never saw in Australia.
Known in Europe for its crazy level of efficiency, Audi’s new German-made A2 resurrects that ethos with a claim of just 12kWh/100km and up to 646km of electric range in a very compact package, helped by slippery aerodynamics and an unusual roofline.
The production A2 is already on sale in Europe from $60,000, and while an Australian launch hasn’t been locked down, Audi executives locally are talking about the potential of bringing the hatch to our shores to give A3 owners a clearer upgrade path to an EV.