Beijing Motor Show: Copycat culture

23 Apr, 2012 7:02pm Mat Watson

Much has been made of the Chinese car industry's copycat culture. But this could come to an end because of the car buying public

China is the land of fake products. Fake Rolexes, fake Ralf Lauren Polo shirts and even fake Apple iPads, you can get them all in Beijing. And it's the same when it comes to cars.

There are many Chinese companies which borrow‚ bits of designs from other European and Japanese car makers, and many are being proudly displayed at the Beijing Motor Show pretty much alongside the very cars they are copying.

For instance there's a saloon from Englon Automobile which has a face that has clearly been styled to look like a Bentley Mulsanne. And there's a Chery that, shall we say, bears more than a passing resemblance to a Mercedes C-Class.

But the Chinese don't just copy luxury cars. Even cars so cheap that you wouldn't think they were worth forging are still copied. Example include the Gleagle with a rear that looks just like a Peugeot 107's, complete with single-piece glass tailgate, and then there's the perennial Chery QQ, which is a Chevy Matiz-a-like.

So why do the Chinese manufactures do it? Well for starters they can get away with it - pursuing a Chinese company for copyright infringement is a tricky business. What's more they don't see plagiarism as a bad thing. In fact, no place is the adage imitation is the sincerest form of flattery‚ so true. And sometimes they don't just flatter one manufacturer, but two. For instance, Hawtai has created an SUV which has the grille from a Jaguar XJ but the side profile of a Porsche Cayenne.

However, one Chinese journalist informed me that fake cars such as this are actually dying out due to the increased wealth of the Chinese people. He said: "We can get many European cars over here now, so people don't want the fakes. They want the real thing."

And it seems they're getting what they want. Look around the roads of Beijing, and you will now see more Volkswagens, Audis and Mercedes than Chinese cars. Well at least I thought they were genuine VWs, Mercs and Audis – they could of course just have been very good fakes.

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Submitted by rango on Tue, 2012-04-24 18:32.

On the BBC news this morning there was a segment on the aftermarket parts business in China. A big seller is badges that can be used to make a Chinese copy look like the real thing. So the Chery C-Class look alike could look identical when the MB tri-star replaces the Chery badge. When the writer was seeing a lot of Mercedes, Audis, etc. on the streets of Beijing he may have been seeing a good number of converted look alikes.

Submitted by prosperity on Thu, 2012-04-26 11:15.

We often seem to demean Chinese manufactured goods.
Chinese cars may not be the best in the world right now but they sold more cars in China last year than in the United States of America.

Give the Chinese time - and not a lot of time, either - and they will be manufacturing vehicles competitive in quality to those of the Western world, and more than competitive in price.

Submitted by deemac17 on Fri, 2012-04-27 18:30.

Look, when will we realize that we here in the west are constantly being ripped off by the so called genuine article. Fair play to the Chinese for being able to produce stuff at a far lower price and lets face it the quality isn't always bad or nasty. We must remember that the price we pay here in the west is mostly going to the fat cats of industry and to designers, who must be laughing at all us idiots who pay way over the odds. EG. About a year ago I purchased a set of daytime running lights for my car over the internet,from china,at a cost of around a fiver all in. A friend of mine who had a set fitted by his local dealer at a cost of a couple of hundred quid has had nothing but trouble with the lights not working, mine are still going strong
As for copy cats, come on , look around you it's been happening here for as long as I can remember.