Chinese Copycat Cars
The Chinese automotive industry has seen truly unprecedented growth in the last three decades.
The Chinese automotive industry has seen truly unprecedented growth in the last three decades. For the largest part of the 20th century, China was mostly building military vehicles or trucks. As late as 1985, there were just 5,200 passenger cars built in China, and even though there were imports from the Soviet Union, Japan, and other countries, private ownership of vehicles was almost non-existent, partly due to the socialist policies and partly due to the high import duties, according to Wikipedia. In the 1980s, a number of Western companies, including AMC, Volkswagen, and Peugeot, started building cars in China through joint ventures with local companies. In the 1990s the industry really took off, with a number of big players emerging, such as BYD Auto, Brilliance China Auto, Geely, and Great Wall Motors.
One factor that helped boost the Chinese automotive industry was the fact that producers didn't really bother with research and development, choosing instead to copy the design of Western cars and offering them at much lower prices. It's not really surprising since China is very well known for its knock-off culture that copies everything from mobile phones to sneakers and handbags to even architecture. It's not that Chinese people are lazy or lack the imagination to come up with their own ideas. According to the National Palace Museum, copying in China goes back centuries, and it was very common in traditional art and craftsmanship to imitate the works of a master as "a method to study."
However, while "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", many Western carmakers didn't really appreciate Chinese companies copying their cars and selling them for profit. Despite lawsuits and criticism, some companies continue to imitate Chinese cars, although their proportion has declined in the last couple of years. In this way, there are Chinese cars that share so many similarities with Western counterparts that it's sometimes hard to distinguishthem, and a more detailed look is required to spot the differences. Further below, you can see this by yourself.
The Geely GE (later rebranded as "Emgrand GE") was announced in 2009, with Geely suggesting that they were “re-inventing the classic,” according to Daily Mail. However, the lady on the bonnet and the large radiator grille, as well as the overall shape of the car, suggested that they didn't so much “re-invent the classic” as drew a lot of inspiration from the Rolls-Royce Phantom, a thing that was quickly noticed by Rolls-Royce. It was hard for them not to notice because the Geely GE was displayed at the Shanghai Motor Show very close to the Rolls-Royce stand with an actual Phantom. Geely said that they didn’t see any similarities and that the cars were different.
According to Motor Authority, a Geely spokesman said, “People may feel that they are the same a the first glance, but the details are certainly different.”
It was reported at the time that Rolls-Royce was considering a lawsuit against Geely. However, since the Geely GE was tagged at just $44,000, it’s unlikely that it would’ve infringed on Rolls-Royce Phantom’s market, where prices start at $350,000. Nevertheless, in 2011, Geely restyled the GE and rebranded it as "Emgrand."The BYD S8 was the first Chinese hardtop convertible announced in 2006 as the "F8." The rebranding from "F" to "S" was to highlight the car’s “sportiness,” although to call it "sporty" is a bit of a stretch. The front of the car resembles very closely a Mercedes-Benz CLK, although the rear half of the car (the roofline, the boot, the rear lights, and the bumper) seems like a copy of a Renault Megane CC. According to Jalopnik, the S8 is powered by a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine that'll go from 0 to 60 in 14 seconds, which kind of negates the point of it being a sporty convertible, but is not unexpected since the car has a weight of over 3,300 lbs. The S8 was unveiled at the Beijing auto show in 2006 and was ready for production by 2009 with prices between $22,000 and $37,000, which would be the fraction of a cost of a CLK that was made between 2000 and 2009. But considering the choice between the F8, a used CLK, or another car for the same price, it’s hard to see why someone would choose the F8. Even the fake “Macan,” the Zotye SR9, is more affordable, and it looks more like a Macan than the F8 looks like a CLK.
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