According to organizer VDA, the IAA 2021 in Munich has turned out to be a ‘sounding success’. Despite the new location and fewer participating car brands, 400,000 people traveled to the Bavarian capital Munich.
744 exhibitors from 32 countries attracted 400,000 visitors from 95 countries: this year the balance sheet of the IAA, the German car fair that was first held in Berlin in 1897, moved over the years to Hanover and Frankfurt to settle in 2021 suffocate in Munich. In addition to the location and the name (IAA Mobility), the concept was also new. Even more than in recent years, many major car brands were absent, but the IAA filled in that gap with exhibitors engaged in ‘new mobility’. Car-sharing programs, scooters, ‘digital solutions’ and electric bicycles occupy the places where brands such as Opel or Peugeot would have shined in a previous life, while in the outdoor area stunt bikers – hosted by Mercedes-Benz, that is – showed that you You can also fly without fossil fuels. At the same time, parts of the event took place at various locations in the inner city of Munich.
The car brands that were there mainly showed electric models. Despite the greening campaign, environmental activists again did their best to throw a spanner in the works, just like two years ago, by blocking the roads in and out of the city during the press day. Nevertheless, the IAA 2021 had 400,000 visitors. That is admittedly much less than the 560,000 of the previous edition, but it counted 10 days, compared to only 6 days this year.
On the other hand, 400,000 visitors are not by definition satisfied visitors. To what extent they were will become clear in two years’ time, when, from 5 to 10 September, the IAA Mobility 2023 will take place in Munich.
You can look back at the IAA Munich 2021 in our video fair reports: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.