No, that's not a $475,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom.
That may look, at first glance, like a vanity license plate on a Rolls-Royce Phantom, but take another glance and you might be in for a surprise. You’re actually looking at a Geely GE, a Chinese knock-off that has closely copied the classic Rolls grille and Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament – but which goes for a fraction of the original’s $475,000 price.
Automakers from around the world put their latest wares on display at this month’s Shanghai Motor Show. But a walk down the hall revealed that local Chinese automakers already had fresh copies of a number of the hottest products from the U.S., Europe, Japan and Korea.
While some picked up subtle styling cues and features, others blended attributes from several different models to create weird Franken-cars, like the Suzhou Eagle EV that was one part Porsche Cayman, with a face lifted from a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta and a battery-electric drivetrain to make things even weirder.
Still other domestic Chinese models were shameless knock-offs almost impossible to tell apart from the originals. One of the boldest, baldest copies comes from LandWind whose X7 looks like it was lifted right off the blueprints for the Range Rover Evoque – the British maker’s most popular product line.
The LandWind X7...
To add insult to some very serious injuries, the LandWind X7 goes for a mere $22,000 compared to $62,000 for the Range Rover. That’s far from unusual. Knock-offs of foreign models like the Ford F-150, Cadillac SRX and Volkswagen Taigun often go for as little as a third of the price of the original, according to Chinese auto analysts.
(Mercedes-Benz to build the GLC Coupe concept unveiled in Shanghai. Click Here for the story.)
...and the Range Rover Evoque.
Land Rover is considering legal action against LandWind for violating its intellectual property rights, and as party to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, China is officially bound to take action.
But similar complaints have had, at best, a spotty history of being acted on. Ford has struggled to get Jiangsu Kawei to stop marketing a blatant rip-off of the F150 pickup dubbed the K1. General Motors, a few years back, vigorously challenged upstart Chinese carmaker Chery for lifting the design of its Spark minicar. Chery offered its clone for a fraction of the price and wound up outselling the Chevrolet model almost four-to-one. Eventually, Chery pulled the plug – but only because it had a newer model ready.
(Volvo debuts Excellence Lounge Concept at Shanghai Motor Show. Click Here to check it out.)
An ad for the BAIC X424
Making a case can be extremely difficult, Oliver Tidman, an intellectual property law specialist in the U.K. cautioned British car magazine AutoExpress. “The company would have to prove that there has been copying by assessing the objective similarities and deciding whether those similarities are the result of independent creation, or whether the infringing design has been derived from the original design,” said our expert. “There must be a causal connection between the two works, which can be difficult to prove.”
A casual stroll through the Shanghai show would certainly suggest a causal connection between the likes of the Zotye E30 and the Smart ForTwo microcar, and between the BACI X424 and the Jeep Cherokee.
In the case of the latter pairing, the Chinese model picks up the distinctive slat grille that Jeep has legally defended in a variety of other markets.
(GM and partners planning to invest $16 bil to launch wave of new products in China. Click Here for the latest.)
The Kawei K1 has open access in China where Ford does not yet offer its original F150 pickup.
One of the odder clones is the 19-foot G Patton – as in General George Patton – that is virtually indistinguishable from the big Hummer H1 that was used by the U.S. military. In this case, the Chinese maker actually did seek a little help from AM General, the U.S. company that built the Hummer, however.
Chinese carmakers have been anything but parochial. They’ve copied Asian rivals, as well as U.S. and European brands. They’ve copied luxury cars and econoboxes, microcars and commercial vans.
And barring some unexpected crackdown by the Chinese government, few observers expect to see things change anytime soon.