Renault traces 128 years of shared history with the Paris Motor Show

The Paris Motor Show was born in June 1898 as a test of roadworthiness, not a showcase of luxury. The Automobile Club de France, which created what was then called the International Automobile Exhibition, required candidate vehicles to complete the Paris–Versailles–Paris route: around 40 kilometres under their own power, with no horse and no trailer. Under large tents in the Tuileries Garden, more than 250 exhibitors showed 232 models, including electric vehicles already, and the exhibition attracted nearly 150,000 visitors, a figure that took everyone by surprise. Benz, Daimler and Peugeot were there — but not Renault.

Six months later, on December 24, 1898, a 21-year-old man drove up the Rue Lepic in Montmartre at the wheel of a small car he had built himself, and came back down with twelve firm orders. Renault Frères was incorporated a few weeks later, and in June 1899 the brand made its first appearance at the second edition of the show — the start of a run it has never missed since. In 2026 the Paris Motor Show celebrates its 128th anniversary and holds its 91st edition; the difference between the two figures is not a mathematical error, being mainly explained by the two World Wars, the Covid-19 pandemic and, since the 1970s, the switch to a biennial schedule. The show has changed location three times and name several times.

The 1899 show was where Renault exhibited the Type A, or Voiturette, praised by the press for its elegance, while the real star was the mechanism: the direct-drive gearbox Louis Renault had patented in February 1899, replacing chains and belts with a propeller shaft, displayed in full view so visitors could operate it themselves, with around sixty firm orders placed during the event. In 1905 the Type AG, a robust and economical twin-cylinder model, prompted the Compagnie française des fiacres automobiles to order 250 vehicles for Paris's first large taxi fleet — the cars that nine years later went down in history as the Taxis de la Marne. Until the First World War Renault sold only a rolling chassis, which the customer took to a coachbuilder who designed and built the bodywork to order. The show reopened in 1919 and became the must-attend social event of the season, drawing 1,200 exhibitors by 1928.

The 1929 Wall Street Crash reached Europe and hit the French automotive industry hard, with production falling from 230,000 to 179,000 vehicles between 1930 and 1935, even as French coachbuilding enjoyed its golden age at the show. The Grand Palais reopened on October 3, 1946, and Renault unveiled the 4CV, developed in secret during the war — the brand's first rear-engined vehicle, lightweight and economical, and the first French production car to exceed one million units. Nicknamed the "lump of butter" for its rounded shape and pale yellow colour, it sparked unanticipated enthusiasm: visitors waited hours in line to sit inside, queues spilled onto neighbouring stands, the Grand Palais security service called for police reinforcements, and the press reported it was impossible to get within ten metres of the car without elbowing through the crowd. The industry was short of raw materials and buying a new vehicle required government authorisation, so few of those visitors could actually buy one.