World's automakers gather in Paris

2008: doom, gloom and despair. The world's automakers gathered in overcast Paris to voice a collective mea culpa for the state of their industry.

The last time the city held its motor show, there was little room for innovation other than through the practical developments of greater fuel economy.

Few celebrated, just as there was little to feel good about. The City of Lights was for a week the City of Less. Manufacturers, clearly embarrassed of their past excesses, attempted to atone by showing the green card and saturating the show with future-fuel alternatives. It was all a disaster that led New York Times automotive columnist Jerry Garrett to ask, "Who killed the non-electric cars?"

Fast-forward two years to Paris 2010. Beneath sunny skies the biennial Mondiale de l'Automobile was displaying a different demeanour. The confidence and innovation had returned. Horsepower was back, and back in droves. It felt like the automotive industry had cast off its shackles for the first time in two years. The pride of an industry was on show.

What's more, the green theme of 2008 had become more than a sop to the environmentalists. Amid two years of recession, manufacturers had started to realise that green must be alluring for consumers to take note.

First up, to enormous crowds, Jaguar broadcast its vision of green: one which can reach 330kph and zero to 100kph in just 3.4 seconds. Its C-X75 concept would not only possess four 195bhp motors, it would also house a pair of gas turbines behind the passenger compartment that would turn generators to replenish electricity to the battery for longer range and more power.

Mike O'Driscoll, managing director of Jaguar peppered his speech at the car's launch with references to showbiz.

"We're not in the transportation business," he said, "we're in the entertainment business. This is a car that celebrates the art of automobile design."

Mercedes also called on popular culture by inviting a French pop starlet and her group of immaculately coiffed teenage dancers to sing a cheerful tribute to the Smart Escooter, which will unlikely be available in the Middle East but will no doubt take on Parisian traffic in its stride with a 5bhp engine and 48-volt battery pack.

Along with the Escooter and Ebike, a pushbike equivalent, Mercedes also revealed its all-electric A-Class E-Cell small car, which will shortly make big inroads in Europe.

What was a big deal, however, especially for the Middle East, was the reveal of the all new Mercedes CLS range. The four-door coupé may not be as green as the other offerings, but it is the transition of a wildly popular luxury car into its next generation. As well as bolder lines and an updated look with noticeably meatier haunches at the rear, the range gets a new, twin-turbo, 4.6-litre V8 in the range-topping 500 CLS. By all accounts, this unit, which produces 429bhp, is every bit as good as one would hope from the non-V12 range topper.

Over at Lotus, something rather radical was happening — and once again with an overpowering showbiz flavour. Not the launch of one car, or two; indeed, not three or four, but five cars were getting the most public of reveals. Despite its micro stature, the Hethel carmaker, via Malaysian money and Italian supercar knowhow, had an entire range of cars — the new Elise, Elan, Esprit, Elite and Eterne — assembled to the biggest audience of the day.

"What you are about to see is the result of a year of a lot of blood, sweat and tears," said Dany Bahar, Lotus CEO, formerly of Ferrari. Indeed, what was on display was five years' worth of development for most of these cars were nowhere near production, slated as they were for between 2012 and 2015.

This was Paris back at its best. While green-shaded developments are always worthy — and in Jaguar's case, sensational — the ambition of Lotus and its star-studded delivery that included actors Mickey Rourke and Stephen Baldwin, supermodel Naomi Campbell and Queen guitarist Brian May revealing the cars, hinted that Paris was back to the optimistic good times.

And history dictates that when Paris is feeling positive, so is the rest of the car world.