Axon’s Automotive Anorak: Ten of the most blatant Chinese car copies

Jiangling’s Landwind X7 is a blatant rip-off of Land Rover’s first-generation Range Rover Evoque, a near carbon copy of JLR’s 2011 original, with the Landwind sold in China at a considerably lower price, matched by a vastly inferior build quality and lower safety standards when compared to the Evoque.

For JLR’s victory, a Beijing court ordered an end to both the sales and production of Jiangling’s copycat Landwind X7 model. It’s a significant first of its kind for the motor industry, and a welcome break for other non-Chinese vehicle makers who have also had their cars cloned by cheap and lesser Oriental imitations.

Since the (very late) 1958 birth of the first domestic Chinese passenger car – the Dongfeng CA71 – the People’s Republic of China has made an art form of closely aping vehicles from the western world. The 1958 Dongfeng itself was clearly inspired by the contemporary Simca Vedette, with a hint of Mercedes-Benz 180 (W120) thrown in for good measure, with elements of a European, American and/or Japanese car evident in many subsequent Chinese cars produced over the past 60-plus years.

With China’s first faltering domestic car spurt in the 1990s, a series of copycat cars, known collectively as the Guangdong vehicles, were quickly rushed into production to try and cope with the new-found local demand. Guangdong vehicles typically ripped off large Japanese off-roaders (Toyota Land Cruiser, Mitsubishi Pajero, Nissan Patrol, etc.) or passenger cars such as the Honda Accord and Odyssey, Toyota Starlet and Camry and the Nissan 300C Cedric.

Geely, now one of China’s largest automotive group’s and the ambitious owner of Volvo, Lotus, LEV London taxis and others, modeled its very first low-rent production car on a contemporary Mercedes-Benz E-Class saloon, which was amusingly based up on the mechanicals of a local FAW Hong-qi Audi 100/A6.

As China moved into the 21^st Century, its cars became more sophisticated and gradually more acceptable to foreign tastes with export potential, although most models were still inferior copies of proven Western vehicles.

At the IAA Frankfurt Motor Show in the early ‘noughties, for example, a few Chinese car brands were famously removed from one of the smaller exhibition halls at the requests of domestic German giants BMW and Daimler-Benz, for displaying third-rate copies of the BMW X5 (the Shuanghuan SCEO) and various Smart-inspired city cars (the Shuanghuan Auto Noble, Flybo EV, HuoYun, and so on).

As well as poor early 21^st Century copies of the BMW X5 and Smart ForTwo, other fake Chinese facsimiles included Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen look-alikes, plus unofficial Kia Picantos, Hyundai Coupes, Citroen ZXs, Daihatsu Charades, Lexus RXs, and many others.

The Chinese art of foreign car forgery is still rife today, other copies of the Range Rover Evoque still being made, such as a tiny Yogomo S325 city car, for example, along with a fake Audi R8, BMW X1, Cadillac Escalade and even Hummer H1 all currently available in China.

Here are 10 more Chinese car copies that have caught my attention and caused occasional disbelief:

Daewoo/Chevrolet Matiz / Chery QQ/QQ3

The Daewoo (later Chevrolet) Matiz city car is arguably the most copied of all cars offered in China, with three-wheeler, single-cylinder counterfeits of the model being built, as well as numerous unauthorised four-wheeled reproductions made throughout China. The most accurate and best-selling Matiz reproduction though is the Chery QQ (later renamed QQ3) that has been a consistently strong seller in China for many years.

Rolls-Royce Phantom 7 / Geely GE

When Geely slide the covers off its GE luxury concept car at the 2009 Shanghai Motor Show, the similarities to the Rolls-Royce Phantom 7 where all too clear for all to see.  Geely restyled the GE ahead of production in 2010, rebranding the prestige limousine as an Emgrand, Geely's luxury brand, but the Rolls-Royce inspiration still remained. As an aside, that other large communist state, Russia, also now has its own interpretation of the Phantom in the shape of the Aurus, as now used by President Putin as his official state limousine.

Smart Roadster Coupe / Yema Auto M72 Hybrid Sports Coupe

The short-lived and assured future classic Smart Roadster Coupe was killed off by Daimler AG before the miniature go-kart really had chance to get into its stride. In 2013, Chinese Austin Maestro-based SUV maker Yema Auto revived the Smart formula by revealed its M72 Hybrid Sports Coupe, potentially China’s first mid-engined city coupe, which has still to make full production as yet. The Yema’s appealing inspiration was unmistakably the sporting Smart. 

Porsche Macan / Zotye SR9

The Zotye SR9 is a shameless clone of the Porsche Mecan SUV but with rather less sporting aspirations or capabilities. Powered by a Mitsubishi-sourced engine, Zotye’s range-topping SR9 produces a maximum of 190 bhp in its highest specification. Zoyte was also briefly involved in a Porsche Cayman facsimile (called the Eagle Came) that struggled find its niche, the baulk of the Chinese Brand’s range consisting of dull, everyday saloons and SUVs, including copies of the Audi Q3 (SR7), Audi Q5 (T600) and Volkswagen Tiguan (Damai X5).

Fiat Panda / Great Wall Gwperi

The Bertone-designed second-generation 2003-12 Fiat Panda was a fun and charming city car, seemingly too good for the Chinese to resist copying. One of China’s more pro-active vehicle producers, Great Wall, blatantly modelled its Gwperi on the design of the Bertone Panda, changing the styling at the front ever so slightly but retaining almost every other Fiat detail from the A-pillars backwards. Fiat promptly sued Great Wall, and although the Chinese courts took little action, the Italian legal system rightly banned the planned sale of the Gwperi in all European markets, with Great Wall then dropping the model sooner than originally planned due to its curtailed export potential.

Mini Hatch/ Lifan 320

Another European city car that proved irresistible to clone was the 2001-2006-era Mini. Chinese motorcycle maker Lifan first knocked-off the Mini in 2008 with its five-door (when the Mini only had three) 320 hatchback. Lifan later facelifted the 320 to become the 330, adding a new Fiat 500-esque front to the model. The Lifan is now also assembled under licence in Russia, where it is sold as the Smily; a much cheaper alternative (in every sense) to the current five-door Mini hatch.

Mercedes-Benz GLA / K One

Mercedes-Benz is one of the European marques that not only sells well in China, but also attracts an extraordinarily high number of wannabe fakes. The local Geely Merrie 300, for example, drew huge inspiration from an earlier Mercedes C-Class, with the BYD F8 recreating an CLK, the JAC P242 a GL-Class, and the BAIC BJ80 a G-Class, not to mention the myriad of Smart clones.

Tesla Model S / Youxia Ranger X

The Youxia Ranger X not only looks like a Tesla Model S, but like its handsome American sedan inspiration the Chinese 352bhp copycat is also exclusively all-electric. The Ranger X’s clear Tesla inspiration also extends to the car’s interior, with a large central screen dominating the dash panel, just like the Model S. Youxia, incidentally, was the Chinese title of the hit 1980s TV show Knight Rider, the Ranger’s front bumper even featuring an LCD panel capable of recreating Kitt’s oscillating LED red lights!

Volkswagen Up! / Weikerui V7

Look quickly and you’d swear this car is a VW Up! The styling, proportions, headlights, bumpers, door profiles, even the logo, all lead to this being an Up! Study the model far more closely, however, and a few, very subtle differences become apparent, suggesting this car could be the Chinese Weikerui V7, an electric VW clone, dimensionally identical to the Up! Quite how Volkswagen can tolerate such blatant copying is a mystery, its own e-Up being sold in China for over almost ten times more than the cheap (but not very cheerful) Weikerui V7.

Toyota RAV4 3dr / Jonway UFO A380

Introduced in 2005, the popular Jonway UFO A380 was reportedly developed from a reverse-engineered second-generation RAV4 three-door model, all without a Toyota licence or consent. In 2013 a revised Jonway Falcon A380 model was launched, this time mimicking the longer five-door Toyota RAV4.