The International Motor Show IAA moves to the south with a new concept: Get out of the exhibition halls in the middle of the city. As a car city, Munich also scores with the backing of the population and politics. The first protests have already been announced.
Munich / Berlin (dpa) - The largest car show in Europe will take place in Munich in the future. The Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) decided on Tuesday to host the International Motor Show (IAA) on the Isar, after almost 70 years in Frankfurt am Main.
In addition to Munich, the cities of Berlin and Hamburg were recently in the race. The first Munich IAA is scheduled to take place from September 7 to 12, 2021, one week before the Oktoberfest.
VDA President Hildegard Müller said: "It was a very tight race." But in the final round, Bavaria's state capital prevailed against Berlin and Hamburg with attractive event locations, excellent transport infrastructure and expertise in organizing major events.
With the new IAA, the VDA wants to get away from a pure car show in the exhibition halls and approach the population. It should "develop into a mobility platform" and give a boost for intelligent traffic concepts and networking of modes of transport. Munich was also convincing in making the city center the stage of the IAA and connecting the locations to the exhibition center via priority tracks for environmentally friendly vehicles.
Munich is planning a much smaller car fair for trade visitors. Instead of entire, 11,000 square meter exhibition halls for individual car groups, there should be no more than 2,000 square meters of stands. The focus of the new IAA is on an event platform in the Olympic Park and in the city center, where the public can test autonomous, electric and hydrogen cars and try networking with other modes of transport. Cultural events, discussion forums with critics and many other events are also to take place there. Visitors should be able to test the new cars even on one-hour tours "with an alpine panorama", said fair boss Klaus Dittrich.
The IAA is not only an important stage for German car manufacturers, but with half a million visitors and half a billion euros in sales, it is also an economic factor. Seven cities had applied - Frankfurt, Cologne, Hanover and Stuttgart were eliminated in the first round.
The international airport, the large, modern exhibition center and above all the support of politicians and the population spoke in favor of the Autostadt in the south. Around 130,000 Munich work in the auto industry, two thirds of citizens support the IAA in their city, the Greens voted in the city council, and the Bavarian state government has already committed 15 million euros for the infrastructure. Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) tweeted after the decision: "We want the car of the future with alternative drives. The aim is to reconcile climate protection and the automobile."
In Berlin, however, business senator Ramona Pop (Greens) stayed away from presenting the application to the VDA. According to the IAA poll, Berlin citizens are as divided as the Hamburg population. The small Hamburg exhibition center is also right next to the Schanzenviertel, where left-wing autonomists made headlines around the world with riots and looting at the 2017 G20 summit.
Munich has experience with major events such as the security conference, the Oktoberfest or the construction machinery trade fair Bauma, the largest trade fair in the world. At the VDA, the trade fair company also advertised with high-tech companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and with start-up conferences such as Bits & Pretzels in Munich.
BMW wants to replace its logo at the corporate headquarters, the four-cylinder high-rise at the Olympic Park during the IAA with the IAA logo. VW boss Herbert Diess does not want to present his cars under the BMW high-rise, at the seat of his former employer and current competitor, it said in industry circles. From the environment of the VW group announced on Tuesday that this was nonsense.
The Frankfurt IAA was organized by the VDA alone, it had rented the exhibition halls. In Munich, the VDA and the trade fair company would be joint organizers and would share tasks, expenses and income. He expected a reasonable profit, said Dittrich. The IAA ensures sales of half a billion euros, almost half of which are directly in the city. As the organizer of 20 trade fairs in China, Messe München could help bring new participants to the IAA.
The IAA had been held in Frankfurt for the past 70 years, but most recently the traditional auto show had massively lost both exhibitors and visitors. Climate activists had made negative headlines.
The Bund Naturschutz (BN) announced protests in Munich on Tuesday: "With its focus on motorized private transport and SUVs, the IAA stands for a mobility policy from the day before yesterday. We may protest the same size in Munich as in Frankfurt," said BN Chief Richard Mergner.
IAA homepage with numbers, history of the IAA
VDA press release
VDA board
