ON THE FRONTLINE OF EUROPE'S FIGHT FOR AUTOMOTIVE SURVIVAL

To a person, the early arrivals at press day of the Munich motor show look busy and happy to be at an event billed all year as the greatest European motor exhibition for a decade, maybe longer.

- STEVE CROPLEY

Veteran attendees talk about enjoying again the very smell of a genuine motor show. Not that this is like shows of old. Sure, it's based in a classically huge (six-hall) exhibition centre, but other locations across the city have already hosted extravagant unveilings and displays, many involving dynamic demonstrations and lots of test driving.

If you seek affirmation that car culture and a car industry still matters to at least one leading nation in Europe, here it is. However, you only need to take a few steps inside, and begin to eyeball the fast-changing giant screens everywhere, to realise that this is far from being an old-time carefree chance to feast your eyes on the latest in mobility.

This is an automotive battleground. It's the place where a renewed European industry (mostly German, because of where we are) is showing how it will use a slew of improved and rethought models to defend its stake in its home market against a wave of Chinese rivals, every one driven by a slowdown at home to seek customers across Europe.

Annual car making capacity in China today is 50 million, a helpful Chinese market expert tells me, but the home market can only accept 28 million. There are thus 22 million extremely well-priced Chinese cars per year seeking foreign homes, despite both the EU and US tariff uncertainties. This fact has special implications for the UK car market, currently just about the easiest and most accepting of the lot for an importer to enter.

EUROPE SHOWS IT'S UP FOR THE FIGHT

The seriousness of the challenge to Europe is made clear by the extreme changes, particularly in tone of voice, of major players.