Beijing show scale
- The 2026 Beijing International Auto Show will occupy 380,000 square meters and display 1,451 cars. (carnewschina.com) - Organizers say there are 181 world premieres and exhibitors include BYD, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagen and Xiaomi. ( ) - Chinese brands are using the event for portfolio positioning, and Nio will show Nio, Onvo and Firefly together in one booth for the first time. (cnevpost.com)
Beijing’s auto show is opening on April 24 at a scale no other motor show currently matches: 380,000 square meters and 1,451 vehicles. (autobeijing.org.cn) Organizers say Auto China 2026 will run for 10 days across two linked venues in Beijing — the China International Exhibition Center in Shunyi and the Capital International Exhibition and Convention Center. News days are set for April 24-25, trade days for April 26-27, and public days for April 28-May 3. (autoshow.org.cn) The show’s lineup includes 181 world premieres and 71 concept cars, according to event figures cited by multiple industry outlets. Exhibitors listed for the event include BYD, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volkswagen, Toyota, Ford and Xiaomi. (carnewschina.com (autobeijing.org.cn)) The size of the floor plan tracks a bigger shift in the car business: China is now the world’s largest auto market, and its domestic brands are using home-soil shows to launch products, sort out sub-brands and signal where they sit in the pecking order. The Beijing show has been running since 1990, but the 2026 edition is the first to use both major adjacent venues at once. (autoshow.org.cn) (autobeijing.org.cn)) That shift is visible in how brands are organizing themselves on the stand map. CnEVPost reported that Nio will display Nio, Onvo and Firefly together in one booth for the first time, turning the booth itself into a statement about how the company wants buyers to read its portfolio. (cnevpost.com) Other Chinese groups are also taking more space and sharper identities into Beijing. Gasgoo reported that Xiaomi, Li Auto and Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance brands that were newer presences in 2024 now have established positions in 2026, while Nio’s newer sub-brands have moved into clearer public view. (gasgoo.com) Foreign carmakers are still prominent on the exhibitor list, but the balance of attention has changed as Chinese electric-vehicle makers add models faster and use big domestic shows to frame their own hierarchies. The official exhibitor roster includes Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen alongside BYD and other Chinese manufacturers. (autobeijing.org.cn) By the time the doors open on April 24, Beijing will be functioning as both a trade fair and a scoreboard: how many cars, how many debuts, and how much space each company thinks it deserves. (carnewschina.com)
