From 26 to 28 September, the Turin Auto Show returned to the town center, featuring 50 manufacturers, including 17 Chinese brands showcasing their latest EVs. This significant presence – also seen at other auto shows around the world – reflects a strategic push by Chinese brands such as BYD, Geely, Dongfeng, Leapmotor, Omoda, and Voya to expand their footprint and gain wider recognition in global markets (the show also, of course, featured prominent western brands including Stellantis, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz, and more).
Underscoring the growing influence of Chinese automakers was the debut of the Piemonte Meets China – Turin Automotive Design Award (TADA), the first European award dedicated to automotive design originating from China.
This initiative aims to highlight the stylistic and engineering evolution of Chinese manufacturers, while fostering a constructive dialogue between the rich automotive heritage of Piedmont – historically associated with names like Pininfarina – and the innovation-driven creativity of emerging players from the East.
In addition to Chery’s Lepas, other new Chinese brands making early appearances in Europe included BYD’s luxury brand, Denza.
WM Motor also known as Weltmeister showed at Turin, as did MHero, a Dongfeng subsidiary specializing in high-end SUVs. Changan, the Chinese automaker with the largest design center in Europe, with more than 300 employees on the outskirts of Turin, showed their Deepal S05 and S07 SUVs. After several stops and goes, Changan announced this summer they will enter Europe next year.
Hyundai chose the Turin show to unveil their Insteroid concept car which reimagines the electric Inster city SUV and brings gaming-inspired design into the automotive world.
Geely, the parent company of Volvo, Polestar, Zeeker and Lotus, for the debut of the Geely brand in Italy, decided to offer a lifetime warranty for the first 1,000 buyers of its EX5 compact electric SUV and Starray EM-I plug-in hybrid. The lifetime warranty is connected to the owner, not to the car, so it is not transferable; it’s really an as-long-as-the-first-buyer-owns-it warranty.
All in all: a strong presence and a range of attractive offerings for the European market, and a demonstration of the Chinese automakers’ clear intent to attract greater market share on the continent.
