(Bloomberg) — Europe’s biggest automakers have long used the Paris auto show to trot out fresh designs and new technologies. This year, there’s a different theme: price.

Most Read from Bloomberg

With drivers balking at the high cost of owning electric vehicles, Stellantis NV, Renault SA and Volkswagen AG plan to showcase their latest budget EVs at the biennial event that starts Monday. Their aim is to turn around a slump that started last year when governments began pulling back incentives to ditch combustion engines.

The stakes are high for the new models to succeed. Chinese rivals led…