How the Paris auto show is going on without visitors

The auto show may be dead, at least in this pandemic year, but automakers still want to reach potential buyers -- and journalists as well. 

After the Geneva show was canceled at the end of February, exhibitors scrambled to put together webcasts of their new models and show cars, with varying degrees of success and slickness, given that they had only a few days’ warning.

The Paris auto show, scheduled for the last two weeks in October, was called off on March 30, and automakers have had a lot more time to think about how to make up for its absence. 

Two of them, Peugeot and Renault, have put together elaborate, multi-day virtual events timed to what would have been the dates of this year’s show.

Peugeot’s virtual auto show is focused, logically, on French buyers who would normally have flocked to the Paris Expo halls by the hundreds of thousands. The PSA Group brand created a digital facsimile of a spacious stand, with an interface that lets tire-kickers zoom in to a particular model, take a 360-degree tour of the styling and check out the interior.

For each model, pop-up windows offer digital explanations of features such as adaptive cruise control. 

At the same time, Peugeot is posting live webcasts with product experts.

The goals of Peugeot’s online "stand" remain the same as a real one: Create excitement and sell cars. To that end, just two clicks get you to a live chat with a salesperson, who can pitch special auto show offers. 

Renault’s weeklong event, which it calls eWays and focuses on electrification, kicked off Thursday with a news conference by new CEO Luca de Meo. 

Renault rolled out two high-profile new vehicles, the Megane eVision concept and the Dacia Spring electric minicar. 

In addition to the reveals, Renault hosted virtual "roundtables" with executives who took questions moderated by press officers. Experts in fields such as urban planning gave seminars on the future of mobility. 

From a publicity perspective, Renault has dominated the automotive news cycle this week in France, whereas in a normal year it would have been competing with launches from rivals such as PSA.

It’s not clear if Renault’s and Peugeot’s online presentations are merely temporary until the pandemic eases and big events can resume, or are nails in the auto show’s coffin.

At the very least, with auto show booths running into the millions of euros, they are much less expensive -- a key consideration in this crisis year.