AUTO SHANGHAI IS not for the weak. It will push your limits of sensory overload, tolerance for crowds and put the most passionate car enthusiast’s level of sustained interest to the test. Picture this: it’s midday on a Wednesday, in April, in Shanghai, China. I’m inside the enormous two-storey, four-leaf clover-shaped National Exhibition and Convention Center, in what I imagine being thrust, Tron-style, into an IRL TikTok feed would feel like.
On one side, a slowly rotating platform with a waterfalllike feature rains down over a futuristic pearly sedan. Conversely, a giant capybara mascot bounces joyfully before a capybara-themed EV hatchback, complete with matching plushies stuck to the doors, mirrors, steering wheel and rear windscreen wiper. It is one of two capybara-themed cars I’ve seen so far. The other is covered in fluffy brown fur and has ears, not unlike the Mutt Cutts car from Dumb and Dumber. Not so far away, past some enormous and futuristic helicopter-like EVTOLs (Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) concepts, Boston Dynamic-esque dog robots dressed as lion dancers sit in the uncanny valley of robotic cute-meets-terrifying and perform a traditional dance routine. I am suspicious of their intent to woo me and find myself asking if this is a form of ‘copaganda’ (probably). The lion bots are neighbours to a troupe of all-male dancers in black suits and white gloves performing a Bob Fosse-meets-K-pop-like routine in front of a small boxy car, that’s meant to evoke what, exactly, I’m not sure. The dancers move sharply and gaze ahead with no emotion, offering the audience – including myself and seven live streamers who are talking non-stop into their tripods – absolutely zero hints of context. Nobody applauds. I feel like I’m stuck in a dream.
Now in its 21st iteration and held every two years, Auto Shanghai is the biggest, most innovative and most fascinating mobility show in the world. With over 16 exhibition halls, totalling the spatial equivalent of three MCGs, it spans five days and showcases more than 1360 vehicles, over 100 brands and welcomes an estimated 1.3 million visitors and 1000 exhibitors through its doors. There is nothing else like it, a reflection of the enormous influence, economic power and innovation China is flexing across the car industry. The show’s size, frenetic energy, futuristic visions and near-infinite information dumps collide head-on with language barriers and culture shocks to create a bewildering, overstimulating, but incredible experience. Though, to be very fair, it’s A LOT.
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