Best of the Paris Motorshow

The biannual Paris Motorshow is always filled with lots of interesting concept and important production debutes, and this year was no different with many exciting and wild concepts taking stage. To make sense of all of the excitement here are the best concept, best Lotus concept, most significant production debut, most outrageous concept and least likely to make it to production technology.

Best Concept

Certainly the toughest category with lots of amazing concepts to pick from including the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, Audi Quattro Concept, and Jaguar C-X75. However the honor of best concept goes to the Renault Dezir Concept and its Hot Wheels inspired design.



Best Lotus Concept

Lotus deserves and gets its own category for its prodigious output of five concept cars. While all of the sports car concepts featured a very similar design the Elan concept had the crispest and most appealing design with the Espirit concept coming in a close second.



Most Significant Production Debut

This year continued the trend of manufacturers releasing production car debut photos and specifications in advance of the show and thus taking some of the excitement out of the production category. One of the most anticipated production debuts before the show was the Land Rover Evoque. After the dust settled and all of the production cars made their debuts the Evoque was still tops in the category. Featuring fresh modern styling the Evoque brings a new direction for the brand necessary to survive in the future.



Most Outrageous Concept

The Paris motorshow is always good for a few wacky concepts and this year was no different with a handful of four wheeled creations masquerading as cars. However, the Citroen Lacoste Concept takes the win with this collaboration with the famed French clothes brand. Citroen even says they have hopes of making this concept go to production, but it's unknown if they are actually serious.



Least Likely To Make It To Production Technology

A decade or even as recent as a few years ago electric cars were often labeled as pure auto show fantasy land, but with the prospect of actual mainstream battery powered vehicles going on sale this is no longer the case. Thus to make a big splash automakers need to create concepts that use even more innovative and further out technology than battery power. The best example this year was the Jaguar C-X75 concept that featured electric motors at every corner and a pair of micro-turbines for range extension. Jaguar promises exceptional performance and fuel economy that sounds too good to be true, as we can only hope that someday we will finally get our long promised jet powered cars.