Best cars at the 2026 Paris Motor Show
Picking the best car launches from a giant motor show like Paris isn’t easy but our team were up to the challenge.
The whirlwind of the Paris Motor Show press day has subsided leaving the Auto Express team free to take stock. Through a frenzied 24 hours of massive new car unveils, top level executive interviews, photography, videography and frantically hammering away at a keyboard like our lives depended on it, we brought you the breaking news in full. Now there’s one big question that must be asked: What were the best cars of the 2026 Paris Motor Show?
The whole concept of an international motor show seemed to have withered away just a few years ago but Mondial De L'Auto 2026 showed it almost back to its juicy, car-packed best. There were so many new car reveals to keep on top of that trying to pinpoint a show star that eclipsed all others with its style, quality, desirability and importance wasn’t easy.
But we did it! Well, some of us couldn’t quite settle on a single car and hedged their best across a couple but you get the idea.
These are the standout new cars and concepts from Paris Motor Show 2026 chosen by the people who’ve seen them, sat in them and pestered the top brass at the world’s biggest car manufacturers to find out everything there is to know about them. Let’s find out what makes them so special…
Alpine A310
- Chosen by Jordan Katsianis, news editor.
The Alpine A310 stole the attention of many Paris showgoers, and so too of yours truly, thanks to its wild and exuberant interpretation of a past classic. Once again, Renault’s design team has been flexing its muscles to dramatic success.
This is Alpine’s first reinterpretation of a lesser-known era of the French sports car manufacturer. In stark contrast to the curvaceous A110, it’s derived from a moment in car design that delivered edges. It wasn’t just the Italians that created this look; the original A310 from 1971 was also part of this journey.
For its modern rebirth in concept form, designers gave it all the contemporary detritus you’d expect such as lightbars and matte-silver paintwork, but it’s all executed with a finely tuned sense of proportion and style. I couldn’t help but be captivated.
And this isn’t ‘just a concept’, but an example of what the company can do with its new APP platform that we’ll see under the new all-electric A110 sports car next year. Alpine has been given the tools to create low-volume or one-off creations like the A310 for its most discerning customers. This could, and should, give the Alpine brand the extra kudos it very clearly deserves.
Fiat Multiplay
- Chosen by Ellis Hyde, news reporter.
Part SUV, part MPV and part pick-up, I have absolutely no idea what the Fiat Multiplay is, but I am obsessed with this incredibly funky frankenstein of a concept car that plays on the infamous Fiat Multipla from the late nineties and could be quite possibly the most multi-purpose multi-purpose vehicle ever.
Fun and colourful like the very lovable Fiat Grande Panda, the Multiplay concept showcased its highly modular design and clever interior throughout the motor show by occasionally switching from a seven-seat people carrier to essentially a double-cab pick-up truck, which it’s meant to be able to do at the push of a button.
Fiat has not confirmed how long it’ll be until we get a production version of the Multiplay, or how close it would be to the concept we saw in Paris, but the mere thought of seeing something like this on the road is enough to get us excited. We could be about to see an MPV renaissance.
Geely ‘Project K011’
- Chosen by Ellis Hyde, news reporter.
At the start of the year I saw a concept version of Geely’s humongous 4x4 in China, and was promised that not only would the brand be building it, but also that this hybrid-powered, AI-aided beast would be coming to the UK to challenge the Land Rover Defender on home soil. At the Paris Motor Show, I finally got to see the production version that is slated to arrive here late next year – earlier than originally planned, maybe due to the massive interest in this car.
It’s known in its homeland as the Galaxy Battleship 700, but we’re expecting it to bear a different, hopefully no less interesting name over here. Either way, the tri-motor plug-in hybrid powertrain reportedly produces more than 1,100bhp and an even more colossal nearly 14,000Nm of torque. Geely has also pushed the limits of its architecture to give the 4x4 the off-road capabilities customers expect, testing them in various environments from the bitter cold of northern Sweden to the sand in China’s deserts.
Of course, there’s no ignoring the fact the design takes more than a little inspiration from the Defender, as well as 4x4 icons including the Toyota Land Cruiser and Ford Bronco, but imitation is the most sincere form of flattery so we’re told. Hopefully JLR’s lawyers agree.
Renault E-Space
Chosen by Jordan Katsianis, news editor.
How far can Renault take its retro phase? The French company is betting it could go far enough to reimagine a large family car that ripped up the rulebook back in the eighties. Renault’s E-Space concept might have seemed like an easy win for nostalgics, but there are two reasons why it’s my show star: the quality of execution, and the mandate to build something that only Renault can.
Firstly, the E-Space concept is yet another example of Renault’s expertise in gently reimagining motifs from the past and embedding them into a car with a modern stance, volume and detailing. The E-Space seems to have all the wrong proportions for a modern car, but the low windowline, wraparound glass and almost locomotive-like silhouette look fantastic, even among the bright lights and countless concepts of the Paris show.
However, there’s also a fascinating rationale behind the E-Space. Renault knows that it can’t compete against premium brands in larger classes. Superminis are its comfort zone, so rather than create just another large premium SUV that will ultimately lose in the battle for sales against Volkswagen, BMW or Audi, Renault has instead looked to reference something from its past that was truly classless.
Renault’s head of design, Laurens van den Acker, reiterated that the original Espace was a true “chameleon of a car”. It happily existed as the sole transport for many middle-class families, but also often shared garage space with luxury cars or supercars; it was simply the best solution for a versatile family car. So just like a Dacia Duster or Skoda Yeti, the Renault Espace is not defined by the owner, but by its function. This E-Space concept might well be just the same.
STX Concept
- Chosen by Tom Jervis, consumer editor.
The eighth-generation Vauxhall Astra marked a turning point for the British brand, moving away from safe designs towards something more emotive. Yet while arrivals from Stellantis stablemates such as the new Citroen 2CV and Alfa Romeo Cuorerosso are hogging the spotlight, the Vauxhall STX concept is my show star. Why? Well, it marks yet another step in a more provocative direction, proving that buying a Vauxhall can be a hedonistic purchase, but also perhaps that in a world of SUVs, the humble estate car is still alive and kicking.
The body-coloured ‘Vizor’ front trim signals a step away from old-school car design trends; being built first and foremost as an EV, the next-gen Astra has no need for a traditional grille, nor does it need to imitate one to avoid alienating petrol and diesel drivers. Sitting front and centre, however, is the redesigned Vauxhall logo which, with its more angular look that mirrors the overall shape of the STX, hints towards a more dynamic and exciting Vauxhall than we’ve known before.
This concept, then, appears to show how Vauxhall plans to appeal to the Netflix generation of family car buyers; they won’t want the same bloated SUVs their parents drove before them, so a head-turning electric estate appears to be the obvious alternative. If Vauxhall can get its prices right from the start (in contrast to what it did with the original Astra Electric), this reinvention might give the British brand a much-needed air of desirability – which will be key if it wishes to succeed against the onslaught of new Chinese rivals.
Get even more from Auto Express, follow our channels...
• Google
• Reddit
• Whatsapp
