Every year, Dhaka Motor Show is held by CEMS Global for three days and gathers the country's automotive enthusiasts, bike enthusiasts, consumers and commercial and industry professionals. This year's show at the International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB) was the biggest one compared to its predecessors as they booked the whole ICCB, as it was finally held after two years after coming out of an ongoing pandemic. 

The three-day 15th Dhaka Motor Show, 6th Dhaka Bike Show, 5th Dhaka Autoparts Show and 4th Dhaka Commercial Automotive Show began on 23rd June 2022 after a break of two years. Various brands and more than 200 companies from across 15 countries, including Germany, Italy, France, the US, Japan, India and Malaysia participated in the exhibition this year with around 500 booths across the whole place.

At the event, Toyota unveiled three brand new cars: Raize, Veloz and Avanza, which were shown off alongside Rav-4, Corolla Cross and Rush. Continental motors the premium luxury car importer participated for the first time and stole the spotlight with the all-new Mercedes Maybach GLS 600, Land Rover Defender, Maserati Ghibli and Porsche Cayenne Turbo S. They also declared that they are the official distributor of Brabus and displayed the Mercedes G-wagon Brabus 600 for a brief moment. Hyundai unveiled the new Tucson, Palisade, Accent, Elantra, Creta and Sonata. Jeep drew some attention for showing the iconic Jeep Wrangler for the first time.

Peugeot also drew in quite a crowd with the new 508 and its unique styling. MG showed the all-new electric ZS EV and it was the only electric car in the venue which was shown alongside HS PHEV and ZST. Haval showed the new Behemoth in their store the POER displayed on top of rocks accompanied by the new Jolion Turbo, H6 and H9. KIA had some interesting and modern-looking new cars like the Sportage, Seltos and Carens. Honda had the biggest stage this time showing off all their lineup starting from the Accord, Civic, City, City RS, CR-V and revealing the 2023 HR-V and 2023 BR-V that are coming soon.

Mitsubishi took centre stage with their cars starting from Outlander PHEV, Eclipse Cross, L200 and Expander. DFSK came and showed the Glory i-Auto alongside BAIC BJ40 Plus. Proton came with new cars like the Persona, Saga, X-50 and X-70. On the Commercial Show side, Toyota showed the new Hilux and the coaster bus.

ACI motors came with their Foton pickup, trucks and microbus lineup. The Energypac came with JAC pickups and SHACMAN trucks and the Ankai bus. Tata unveiled their new Prima truck and other pickups.

This year's bike show was the biggest and the grandest one yet, where motorcycles of international and local brands were showcased at the exhibition. The bike show had various stunt shows for the crowd and several competitions up its sleeves and brands like Suzuki spared no expense and went all out. The bike show had hundreds of bikes from Suzuki, KTM, Hero, Zontes, Lifan, Vespa, Runner, Bajaj, Yamaha, GPX, Taro Bangla, Honda, Aprilla, TVS and many more showcased their bikes in the grandest way possible. 

The Autoparts Show had several booths in every hall having various items up for sale and marketing to the public where companies like Pirelli tires, HJC helmets, Maxxis tires, Bridgestone tires, lubricant companies, importers, service centres, spare parts dealers, auto component distributors and many more showcased their products. The Bangladesh automotive community even showed up and had fun in their own way in the parking lot doing doughnuts and burnouts. The event had everything from food to live music this year.

As always, the Dhaka Motor Show promised to be the grandest event on the calendar for automotive enthusiasts and they delivered yet again even after two years. 

Photos: Akif Hamid