Why IAA Mobility left Frankfurt for Munich in 2021

IAA Mobility, the motor show that fills Munich every two years with concept cars, e-bikes and robot taxis, used to be the Frankfurt Motor Show. It moved to Munich in 2021 after seventy years in Frankfurt, because crowds were thinning, big exhibitors were pulling out, and the 2019 edition became a target for climate protests outside the gates. Munich won the show with a new idea: keep the trade floor behind badges, but add a free festival in the city centre that anyone can walk into.

Seventy years in Frankfurt, then a stall

The IAA itself goes back to 1897, when eight cars from Benz, Daimler, Kuhlstein and Lutzmann were shown in Berlin. It stayed a Berlin event for decades before the Verband der Automobilindustrie, Germany's carmaker association, moved it to Frankfurt in 1951. That first Frankfurt edition drew 570,000 visitors from 45 countries, and the show grew from there, splitting in 1991 into a car show in Frankfurt on odd years and a truck and bus show in Hanover on even years.

The 1991 Frankfurt show packed in 1,271 exhibitors from 43 countries across 200,000 square metres. By 2019, the last car edition held there, the crowd was still over 560,000, not a collapse in raw numbers. What had changed was the exhibitor list and the mood outside. Several large carmakers scaled back or skipped the show, the Dieselgate emissions scandal still hung over German manufacturers, and activists blocked roads around the venue. Messe Frankfurt's contract with the VDA lapsed without renewal, and on 3 March 2020 the VDA picked Munich as the new home.

Munich's reinvention: part trade show, part street festival

The first Munich edition, in September 2021, was smaller than old Frankfurt by visitor count: 400,000 attendees, 744 exhibitors and speakers from 32 countries, with 3,500 journalists from 95 countries covering it. But the format was different. Alongside the ticketed Summit at the Munich exhibition grounds, the VDA opened a free Open Space through the city centre, letting Munich residents walk past concept cars and e-scooters without a trade badge.

It worked well enough to keep growing. The 2023 edition logged 750 exhibitors from 38 countries and 500,000 visitors with 300 world premieres, and the 2025 edition, held from 9 to 14 September, matched that with 750 exhibitors from 37 countries and 350 world premieres, according to IAA Mobility's own press release. China alone sent 116 of those exhibitors in 2025, more than any other country, ahead of South Korea's 58 and Austria, Italy and the United States with 24 each. Messe Munchen and the VDA have since signed a contract keeping IAA Mobility in Munich for three more editions, through at least 2031, with the next one set for 7 to 12 September 2027.

Frankfurt did not lose everything. IAA Transportation, the truck and bus edition, still runs in Hanover in even years, most recently in September 2024 with nearly 1,700 exhibitors from 41 countries and around 145,000 visitors.

Why this matters from India

Indian readers follow Munich mainly because of what shows up there first: BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Porsche routinely use IAA Mobility to preview electric and performance models that later arrive in Indian showrooms, sometimes years apart. The Open Space format itself has no real equivalent at Auto Expo or Bharat Mobility, which stay trade led, ticketed, convention centre events without a free public street component. And the exhibitor mix, with Chinese brands now the single largest national group in Munich, is a preview of the competition Indian carmakers will meet as they chase export markets in Europe and Southeast Asia over the next few years.

Sources

• History IAA
• International Motor Show Germany, Wikipedia
• IAA MOBILITY to remain in Munich until at least 2031
• IAA MOBILITY demonstrates the industry's strength and innovative power
• IAA MOBILITY 2023: Mobility Festival in Munich Inspires and Fascinates Over Half a Million People