The Hindu Business Line : Celebration of the car

The 77th International Motor Show, which is being held in Geneva from March 8 to 18 this year, is certain to be another promising edition of this popular global automotive expo.

Arguably the world's most important auto show draws every year new exhibitors and concepts and also becomes the stage for a raft of premieres.

Located in a neutral country and right next to the picturesque Swiss Alps, the Geneva Auto Show or the Salon international de l'auto et accessoires Geneve, as it is called, attracts the biggest names from the world of cars, accessories, design houses and components.

This 2007 edition attracted a few names from new, previously unrepresented manufacturers and countries — notably Russian and Chinese. Bringing together more than 250 exhibitors on a net surface area of nearly 77,000 square metres, the Motor Show has once again occupied all of the Geneva Palexpo's sprawling facility and its available surface area.

During the two press days, more than 5,000 media representatives from all over the world flocked to the Palexpo. Around seven lakh visitors are expected from all five continents — generally 40 per cent of them are foreigners from 80 countries — during the 11 days that the Show is open to the public.

Over 80 world and European premieres have been announced in the vehicles sector alone, along with the presence of new exhibitors, including China's Brilliance, KTM, Russo-Baltic, or the born-again brands Abarth and Donkervoort.

In keeping with the new trends already observed, the pride of place has been given to the development of technologies offering alternative energies.

Dream cars and first models launching production series of important manufacturers are of course also present.

The accessories, spare-parts and equipment sectors are the industry's largest annual exhibition in Switzerland and offer both the public at large and the trade visitors a host of new products.

This year's exhibition has been classified into such sections as motor cars three or four or more wheels, electric and alternative powered cars, special bodywork for motor cars, design and engineering, converted cars (tuners), accessories and parts for motor cars, original equipment manufacturers, workshop installations for the repair and maintenance of motor cars, miscellaneous products and services related to the car industry, and animation and other attractions.

Some of the biggest attractions at this year's Geneva Auto Show were the Ford Mustang concept created by Italdesign, the Maserati GranTurismo, the Mercedes Benz Vision C220 BLUETEC concept, the Rolls-Royce Drophead coupe, the BMW M3 concept and the Audi A5 coupe.

S. Muralidhar