IAA Mobility 2025: Smarter, Bigger, Further

4 min read

The crowd-pullers at IAA Mobility 2025 in Munich from September 9 to 14 are clearly the major German brands, above all BMW, Mercedes and VW. But Chinese manufacturers are also strongly represented, though in some cases only with small components.

Anyone expecting to see a wide range of cars from different brands at IAA Mobility may be disappointed. Some of the vehicles, depending on the component or software module, can be found at several booths. This once again shows how important and closely intertwined international supply chains are, and that no passenger car today is an “isolated island.”

The ever-larger displays, or at least their panels, mostly come from China or South Korea, as do many of the chips and other small components, right down to switches and relays.

Germany Still Leads in Autonomous Driving

German suppliers such as Bosch show how the mobility of the future is becoming increasingly AI- and software-driven. This includes intelligent driver assistance systems for autonomous driving, known as ADAS for short, which the Israeli specialist Mobileye is also presenting very impressively. Germany is one of the few countries that has approved Level 4 autonomous vehicles for regular operation on certain short routes – and has done so since 2022.

That gave the domestic industry a major head start, though it was probably only short-lived when you look at the many concepts and, in some cases, already deployed autonomous vehicles in China or Japan. The fact that China, with around 100 exhibitors, is the second-largest delegation at the trade fair after Germany is unmistakable – even at the large booths of the German manufacturers. At BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen, the largest crowds can also be found around the latest electric flagship models.

At BMW, several models of the new ix3 are on display, which, with up to 805 kilometers according to WLTP, probably has the longest range of the vehicles exhibited. As a harmonized test procedure, WLTP is admittedly relative, as is also familiar from diesel and gasoline vehicles. Especially with the latter, people are used to seeing them rarely, if ever, live up to the WLTP promise.

Unexpected Electric Range

The German manager explaining the advantages of the ix3 50 in English, however, talks about more than 400 kilometers of range, even if you keep the “accelerator” pressed all the way down to the limit of 210 kilometers per hour. That would be something entirely new. In most electric cars, speed is capped at 160 or 180 kilometers per hour. And that is where you quickly see how dramatically range drops at full speed.

Unlike most other manufacturers, BMW is already naming specific prices. The ix3 50 is expected to cost 78,720 euros in the version with the “Innovation Package,” 21-inch wheels, professional parking assistant and panoramic roof. But the base price of 68,900 euros already includes many extras that would otherwise cost a lot more. In that sense, for such a top model in the field of electric mobility, you can already speak of aggressive pricing, even if not everyone is willing or able to pay it. In return, the luxury equipment already includes BMW Panoramic iDrive, which spans the entire front section.

Volkswagen and Mercedes Also Present New Electric Models

Things are somewhat different with Volkswagen’s new id.Polo, which, at just under 25,000 euros, is intended to offer something against low-cost competition from China. In Germany, however, that competition is often not nearly as cheap as the Nio models available only as subscriptions show. Even the small car called Firefly starts at around 30,000 euros. Although it has an unusually large frunk (front trunk) for a car just under 4.0 meters long, it only offers a WLTP range of 330 kilometers, which marks it out more as a pure city car. In the crash test, however, the “Firefly” was rated by Smartdroid as Europe’s safest electric car. The new top Mercedes models are also expected to be very efficient and offer long ranges. The power consumption of the CLA 250+ with so-called EQ technology is listed at a combined 13.5 kilowatt-hours (kWh). On the motorway, it is therefore expected to make do with just 16.9 kWh, where the power consumption of other electric cars often rises to almost twice that. Mercedes gives the combined range as more than 700 kilometers, as it does for the new top model, the 489 hp GLC 400 4Matic.

“The German manager explaining the advantages of the ix3 50 in English, however, talks about more than 400 kilometers of range, even if you keep the “accelerator” pressed all the way down to the limit of 210 kilometers per hour.”

Hopes for new technologies

In one test, a Mercedes EQS with a novel solid-state battery delivered a side sensation at the IAA by completing the 1,200-kilometer route from Stuttgart to Malmö in Sweden without even making a charging stop. At the end, it still had an impressive remaining range of 137 kilometers. For now, however, this is only a research project in collaboration with the US company Factorial Energy and the Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains Formula 1 technology center, as t-online reports.

Accordingly, Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota, Ford and Nissan, as well as Nio from China, are also pursuing similar development approaches. However, the Mercedes presented together with Taiwanese battery developer ProLogium, for example, is not expected before 2027. Meanwhile, sodium-ion batteries are also attracting attention; without scarce, expensive lithium, they are expected to deliver ranges similar to solid-state batteries. The first production vehicles are already on the market in China. Perhaps the next edition of IAA Mobility in two years will already present further innovations in this area.

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Title image source: IAA Mobility