Frankfurt Motor Show news review: making sense of the 2013 IAA show

Newspress

Frequently the car that attracts people’s attention at motor shows is an exotic-looking beast that everyone ‑ creators included ‑ know will never see the grind of a production line. Unusually, at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show press day, the car on everyone’s lips was a model that many journalists have already driven, and for which dealers are already taking orders: the BMW i3.

With its skinny tyres and boxy, upright stance, the all-electric model isn’t as easy on the eye as the usual headline-grabbers. Yet people who rode in the i3 were seduced by its funky interior. Those who’d driven it praised its poise on the road. Rival manufacturers who’ve already ploughed the electric furrow smiled smugly at its vindication of ‘their’ strategies. Makers that haven’t, meanwhile, seemed reassured to see a premium product testing waters that they will doubtless be navigating when the next Frankfurt Motor Show rolls round two years hence.

While electric cars will have proliferated by then, it’s unlikely Frankfurt 2015 will feature quite so many concept cars apparently pointing the way to two-door grand tourers as this year. It appears 2013 is the year of the coupe. Audi, Cadillac, Nissan, Opel, Mercedes and Volvo all had them.

It appears that 2013 is the year of the coupe

By James Foxall