Paris Motor Show opens Monday with a record 20 Chinese brands as EU and China agree in principle to curb hybrid exports

The Paris Motor Show opens Monday, Oct. 12, with a lineup that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Twenty of the roughly 60 carmakers on the floor are Chinese. At the last show in 2024, there were 10.

The event runs through Oct. 18. European brands are bringing new models to defend their home turf, including the Audi A2 e-tron, Skoda Peaq, Dacia Striker and Fiat Grizzly. Renault and Citroën are showing concepts. BMW is not attending at all, despite having a new 3 Series, iX4 and X5 to show.

A deal in principle on hybrids

The timing of a trade development is hard to miss. On Friday, Oct. 9, trade officials from China and the European Union agreed in principle to curb Chinese hybrid exports to the bloc by more than half. Details on how the agreement would work remain scant.

Hybrids matter because they sidestep the tariffs aimed at fully electric cars. The EU imposed anti-subsidy tariffs of up to 35% on Chinese-made EVs two years ago. Hybrids are subject only to the ordinary 10% import duty.

Chinese makers responded by shifting product. Chinese brands held more than 26% of the Western European plug-in hybrid market in the second quarter, up from 2.2% in the same period two years earlier, according to Schmidt Automotive Research data. Hybrids reached about a quarter of European deliveries in August.

Hildegard Müller, president of Germany's VDA car lobby, called the accord "an initial positive signal." She said more information was needed for a definitive assessment. "The decisive factor will be whether the results contribute to fair competitive conditions, provide planning certainty, and strengthen open, rule-based trade," Müller said.

Market share and the damage at home

Chinese brands held 10.7% of the European market in the second quarter, up from 5.7% a year earlier, per Schmidt Automotive Research. That is now above Japanese brands that arrived in the 1970s.

European automakers are struggling. Volkswagen cut its profit forecast last month, following a similar warning from BMW in June. Mercedes-Benz car sales fell 8% in the third quarter. Volkswagen is cutting thousands of jobs and considering factory closures, and BMW is also shedding thousands of workers.

Brad Kunz, a partner at consultancy Grant Thornton Stax, framed the Chinese push as a response to being locked out of America. "The Chinese are saying 'we've got to try and dominate Europe because we can't do anything in the US,'" he said.

The Chinese lineup is also moving up-market. BYD has a large stand, with its premium Denza brand exhibiting separately. Zeekr, XPeng, Geely, Chery, Omoda, Jaecoo, Li Auto and Leapmotor are all on the official exhibitor list. Chery is preparing to establish a full sales network in France.

Macron's farewell tour

Emmanuel Macron attends Monday, his final Paris show as president. As at every edition, the presidential trip is preceded by a dinner at the Élysée on Sunday evening, Oct. 11, with around 60 stakeholders expected, including carmakers, equipment suppliers, battery manufacturers and rare-earth firms. The presidency says no brand boss or Chinese exhibitor will attend the dinner.

Monday he will visit the Stellantis, Renault and Valeo stands, then hold a roundtable on autonomous cars.

The Élysée says the auto industry supports 400,000 direct jobs in France and points to four new battery plants in the north. A presidential source noted that France had "no battery factories at all, obviously" at the start of Macron's term.

The numbers show how far there is to go. In 2025, France registered 331,000 new electric passenger cars, according to Insee, but its factories built 216,000. Six in ten of those are exported. Only 26% of new EVs bought in France are made in France. The government's target of two million electric vehicles a year by 2030 remains far off.

The push for European preference

Paris argues that China has an export capacity of 55 million vehicles a year against Europe's 12 million, and wants the EU to "finally support what it produces." France's position is that public subsidies for electric cars should favor vehicles made in the 27 member states.

Brussels is working on legislation with "Made in Europe" provisions that would set minimum local-content levels for EVs to qualify for key subsidies or government contracts. Europe's auto industry is also pushing for tariffs on Chinese plug-in hybrids.

The supply chain is the harder problem. China's grip on rare earths, battery materials and a growing share of components gives it what some car executives privately call a "kill switch." Chinese export curbs last year halted work at several supplier plants and disrupted parts of BMW's network. Mercedes considered larger stockpiles.

Tariffs and local-content rules do nothing about that dependence. The EU legislation is still under discussion, and details of the hybrid deal remain to be seen as the show runs through Oct. 18.