China's car industry in the last decade or so has gone from strength to strength, with many Chinese companies buying up historic brands like Volvo, Lotus, and MG. The country's homegrown companies have also been putting out highly competitive cars, especially in the electric vehicle market where brands like NIO have been rapidly expanding into Europe and the rest of Asia. Unfortunately, the industry is still plagued with a few issues that developed in its infancy, and one of those issues is copycat cars.
Chinese companies have become notorious for their rip-offs of Western and Japanese models, offering similar designs for a cheaper price and lower quality. Most of the time, these rip-offs are so terrible that they won't be fooling anyone, but that hasn't stopped plenty of manufacturers from making them anyway. From tiny superminis to high-end supercars, it seems like there's a Chinese company out there willing to rip off any car design if it earns them a decent pay packet. Let's take a look at ten of the most blatant copycats and see just how laughably bad they are.
10 Shuanghuan Noble (Smart Fortwo)
Some Chinese companies do make a bit of an attempt to hide where they steal their designs from, but Shuanghuan did exactly the opposite with its Noble city car. Bearing no affiliation to the British sports car company of the same name, the Noble makes even a regular Smart car look luxurious.
Plastered across the side of this obvious Smart Fortwo rip-off is the motto, "Smarter... than the rest!", which shows just how little the company cared about its design theft.
9 Geely GE (Rolls-Royce Phantom)
Geely is now a fairly well-respected conglomerate, owning both Volvo and Lotus. But, back in 2009, they were subject to their own wave of controversy after unveiling the GE, which was quickly dubbed the "copycat Rolls-Royce".
The company denied at the time that it had copied Rolls, but it's hard to see how any designer could have come up with such a similar design accidentally. Still, the cheap-looking front end and slightly awkward proportions mean that no billionaire is going to be confusing the two models.
8 Youxia X (Tesla Model S)
When Youxia Motors was looking for design inspiration for their recent electric car, it seems like they saw a picture of the Tesla Model S and decided that it would look better with an oddly-proportioned fake black grille smacked on the front of it.
They couldn't even manage to come up with an original name, resorting to copying the name of Tesla's SUV as well as the design of its sedan. According to Forbes, the CEO of the company said the car's design came to him in a dream, but in reality, it's hard to see how this is anything other than a discount Tesla.
7 CH Auto Lithia (Audi R8)
Not content with just ripping off economy cars and EVs, a Chinese startup called CH Auto showed off a prototype sports car in 2012 that looks very much like an Audi R8 from the side. It's one of the better-looking clones, but its performance means that no one's going to be mistaking this for an R8 anytime soon.
It came with a single electric motor and lithium-ion batteries that gave the car just 93 miles of range. Its total power output was officially claimed as 201 hp, which given the car weighed over 3500 lbs would have made it feel more budget than baller to drive.
6 Dojo Pioneer (Aston Martin Cygnet)
Why anyone would want to rip off the Aston Martin Cygnet is a mystery, as it remains one of Aston's most widely mocked cars ever. Still, that didn't stop one Chinese manufacturer from having a go, and the result is the Dojo Pioneer.
One of China's many economy-spec cars, the Pioneer doesn't come with the Cygnet's one saving grace, which is a luxurious interior. Although, having said that, neither of the two cars should be on any sane collector's wishlist, real or rip-off.
5 Weikerui V7 (VW Up!)
Carrying on the theme of cheaply cloned superminis, it's hard to think of how much more identical Weikerui could have made their V7 to VW's best-selling Up! city car if they'd tried. Even the badge has been clumsily ripped off, replaced with a W logo instead of the proper VW lettering.
As similar as they might look from the outside, no one is going to be fooled by the Weikerui as soon as they sit inside it. It's made from the cheapest materials possible with minimal features to keep its retail price rock bottom, a sharp contrast to the Up!'s surprisingly comfortable interior.
4 Shuanghuan CEO (BMW X5 E53)
When Shuanghuan isn't busy ripping off Smart designs for their city cars, they're 'taking inspiration' from the E53 BMW X5 for their cut-price SUV. The only real difference is that the CEO's license plate is lower but other than that they're pretty identical in design.
Often, global car manufacturers let these Chinese copycats slip by unnoticed, but the CEO caught the attention of BMW and they successfully sued Shuanghuan for design infringement. The car was then banned in Germany, which probably did buyers a favor as its 123 hp diesel engine and 4,000 lb weight would have made it horribly sluggish to drive.
3 Suzhou Eagle Carrie (Porsche 718 Cayman)
The Suzhou Eagle Carrie is a particularly ugly mashup of Porsche and Ferrari design language that's worth a closer look at just because of how laughably bad it is. The main body shape and rear of the car most closely resembles a Porsche Cayman, albeit one made out of cheap plastic.
The car debuted in 2015 and it's not known how many units were sold, if any at all. Hopefully, the answer is none, because seeing one of these atrocities in real life must surely be bad for your health.
2 Geely Merrie 300 (Mercedes-Benz C-Class)
From a distance, it might be difficult to tell the difference between the front of a Geely Merrie 300 and a Mercedes C Class, but get up close and things begin to look a lot different. The rest of the Geely more closely resembles a generic economy sedan than anything that rolled out of a premium German automaker.
Even so, it's incredible how blatantly Geely could get away with ripping off the C Class and not face any repercussions. That's largely down to China's almost non-existent copyright laws, which make it very difficult to prosecute companies that steal design property like this.
1 Land Wind X7 (Range Rover Evoque)
The Land Wind X7 is one of very few instances where the original copyright holder has taken the copycat to court and won. Jaguar Land Rover took Land Wind to trial in China over their infringement of the Range Rover design, and after months spent arguing their case, a judge decided JLR's complaint was valid.
The judge found that five unique design elements had been copied and that the X7 was therefore unlawful. The copycat car was ordered to be taken off sale immediately and Land Wind was ordered to pay compensation to Land Rover. It takes a lot for a Chinese court to rule in favor of copyright infringement, but the Land Rover case proves that it can be done.