Still strong on its 45th anniversary, the 2024 Bangkok International Motor Show once again opens its doors to visitors from all over the world to its expansive floor space with exhibitions from the world's top automakers and the rising stars of the east.

Since 1979, the Bangkok Motor Show has welcomed a total of 61,441,569 visitors to the grandest of its kind in ASEAN. Having been visiting the show since our early years at Autoindustriya.com, the show is close to our heart, and is good to know that they have remained a motor show participated by global brands despite many similar events reinventing themselves as “mobility shows”.

Concept and reality

Motor shows provide a glimpse of the future with concept cars and prototype vehicles. Leading the way was Mercedes-Benz with the Vision One-Eleven, Suzuki EWX Concept, and the Isuzu D-Max EV Concept.

Chinese flex

As China shows that its automotive industry is ready to take on the world, this year saw a significant increase in the brands present at the event. Chinese auto brands such as BYD, Changan, GAC Aion, MG, Neta, Xpeng, and Zeekr made their presence felt with their latest offerings and expansive display areas.

Electrified dreams and reality

Electrified mobility continued to be the trend in Bangkok as motorists looked to lower their carbon footprint and EV options to become more accessible. Diesel specialist Isuzu is taking a stab at mass-market electric mobility with their D-Max pickup EV concept. Shown in a dual-motor powered configuration with a decent amount of ground clearance it hopes to deliver the needs of its customers sustainably.

BMW debuted their new iX2, Hyundai debuted its N-line of EVs (including the Elantra N), Kia debuted their EV5 crossover, Lotus came with their Emeya and Eletra performance EV models, Maserati showed their Grecale Folgore, Mercedes-Benz showed their EQ lineup, Rolls-Royce had their Spectre EV, and Volvo showed off its EX30. Chinese automakers went all out with their full EV lineups. Vietnam's first carmaker Vinfast also made a strong offensive with their Bangkok Motor Show debut.

For those that were not quite ready to dive into EVs, there were several hybrid models launched and recent models offered as well.

Land of Smiles

Thailand is known to be the "Land of Smiles" and the beautiful smiles of the brand presenters never fail to capture the attention of visitors.

Supercars and Hypercars on display

This year's expanded exhibition space allowed for the display of supercars and hypercars for the visitors to ogle on. Noteworthy ones included this Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4, McLaren Speedtail, a collection of Ferraris, and many more attractions for car enthusiasts.

Apart from the special displays, the extension space at IMPACT Forum Hall 4 also features auto accessories, glamping, and motorsport displays.

The challenge for motor shows nowadays is to make them relateable to a wider audience than just car enthusiasts and GPI seems to be doing a good job looking at the filled up exhibition halls and parking lots full cars.

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The 45th Bangkok International Motor Show is open to the public from March 27 to April 7, 2024, and organizers are very confident of attracting over a million visitors to IMPACT Muang Thong Thani again this year along with a significant amount of sales bookings. For those looking for a world-class motor show experience, Bangkok is just a short flight from Manila.

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