Tesla will reportedly attend this year’s IAA Mobility Show in Munich, Germany in a rather unusual move for the EV maker.
Germany’s Automobilwoche, a sister publication of Automotive News Europe, confirmed with show organizers that Tesla will present its electric vehicles in the open air at Munich’s Königsplatz during the event running September 4-8.
While the decision is good news for the show, which moved from Frankfurt to Munich in 2021 in a bid to attract more visitors, it’s quite unexpected for Tesla, as the EV maker only rarely attends auto shows. It is not known which models Tesla will have on display at IAA Mobility or whether it will offer test drives.
According to Germany’s DPA news agency, the Tesla booth will be around 200 square meters (2,152 square feet), which is rather small for a car show.
Tesla will join German automakers, Renault, Opel, and Ford taking part in show, along with Chinese brands including BYD, FAW’s Hongqi luxury brand, Leapmotor, Seres, and Dongfeng. The Chinese carmakers aim to expand their reach into Europe.
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Tesla’s decision to attend the IAA Mobility show comes at a time when other automakers are looking to reduce their marketing budgets. Stellantis, for example, has only confirmed its Opel brand for this year’s auto show in Munich.
In the past, Tesla has on rare occasions attended car shows, especially when it had a new model to showcase. The company’s first such event was the 2006 San Francisco Auto Show, where it showed the original Tesla Roadster.
The EV maker also attended the 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show in 2017 when the Tesla Model 3 made its auto show debut. Tesla was also among the OEMs that participated in the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show.
Instead of exhibiting at costly auto shows, Tesla typically prefers to unveil its new models and technologies through its own events and online platforms. This allows the company to have more control over the messaging surrounding its products and to reach a wider audience directly.
We’ll see if Tesla’s IAA 2023 presence will be the exception that proves the rule for the EV maker or the first sign of a change of strategy.
Speaking of a change in strategy, the company recently did a U-turn on advertising. Shortly after CEO Elon Musk said in May 2023 that the brand would “try a little advertising and see how it goes” during a shareholder meeting at Giga Texas in May 2023, Tesla started advertising on Google Ads.
