10 copycat cars from China: Rolls Royce Phantom to Toyota Innova Crysta

China is a country known for a lot of things, but ask any auto enthusiast and you’ll be immediately showered with a slew of undignified slangs. That’s because Chinese auto manufacturers have built quite a reputation for building cars that are actually full-fledged copies of successful cars and motorcycles from around the globe. Several international auto manufacturers went for legal proceedings but the inconsistent Chinese laws meant that there was little progress. Let’s now check out 10 of the most blatant copycat cars from China.

Geely GE vs Rolls Royce Phantom

The Geely GE would have never acclaimed international fame had it not been a copy of the Rolls Royce Phantom. While Geely is now quite a big manufacturer (owns Volvo now plus majority stake in Lotus) and has moved away from copycat tactics, it made quite a few clone models during its development phase. The Geely GE carries a similarly large grille, similar headlamp placement and even a hilarious copy of the ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’. However, the Geely GE only looks a lot like the Phantom as it is nowhere as powerful or luxurious as the latter. While the last-gen Phantom came with a huge 6.75-litre V12 motor, the GE makes do with a 3.5-litre V6.

Yema B11 vs BMW i3

BMW showcased the i3 hatchback along with the i8 sports car and both of them caught the world’s attention for their design and cutting edge technology. Yema, a Chinese car manufacturer, decided to come up with a clone of this city hatchback. The Yema B11, however, can’t match the German i3 when it comes to build and technology levels, though it came with both all-electric and electric-hybrid powertrain as compared to i3’s only electric powertrain.

Changan Lingxuan vs Toyota Innova Crysta

The Changan Lingxuan is again a blatant copy car from China which is a clone of the Innova Crysta. To let you know, the Innova Crysta is not only a popular vehicle in India but across various South Asian nations. This was enough a reason for the Chinese to clone this Japanese MPV. While the Changan Lingxuan looks almost the same as the Crysta, it costs significantly less which is the case with all copycat cars.

Jiangnan TT vs Maruti 800

The Europeans and the Americans are not the only to have faced the Chinese design copy scheme as its neighbours have also been facing such issues since long. Chinese car manufacturer Zotye, a well-known design cloning car manufacturer, made an exact copy of the Suzuki 800 sold in India along with its subsidiary Jiangnan. However, Jiangnan had acquired the required permissions and licenses from Suzuki to use the design and hence it’s actually a completely legal case. For those wondering what’s the motive behind copying car designs, it simply reduces the R&D and production costs by a substantial margin.

Geely Merrie 300 vs Mercedes Benz C-Class

Geely again makes an entry in this list, though this time with a Mercedes copy car. The manufacturer made Merrie 300 which was a copy of the previous generation of the Mercedes C Class. This clone car was much cheaper than the original C-Class sedan but had an almost identical design. The headlights, grille and even the hood top logo ornament was copied down.

Diablo VT vs Lamborghini Diablo

This time around, a Chinese company not only copied a car but also had the same name as of the original car. We are talking about the Diablo VT, a straight rip-off of the original Lamborghini Diablo. The manufacturer claims to be the first-ever supercar manufacturer of China. The Diablo VT is powered by a Toyota-sourced V8 engine that outputs 450 Bhp.

Victory S10 vs Cadillac Escalade

The Cadillac Escalade is one of the most famous American luxury SUVs. It’s a highly comfortable model that offers plenty of street presence. Thanks to the high popularity that this vehicle enjoys, the Chinese, who have a thing for cloning famous vehicles, have even copied the Escalade. Known as the Victory S10, this clone looks a lot like the Escalade. However, unlike the huge engines that power the popular Cadillac SUV, the Victory S10 gets a pretty humble 2.0-litre engine that outputs 116 bhp.

Suzhou Eagle Carrie vs Porsche Cayman

Ever seen a Porsche marry a Ferrari? Well, that’s exactly what a manufacturer named Suzhou decided to do with a car named Eagle Carrie. The front end of the car looks like a poor man’s Ferrari F12 Berlinetta while the rear end is lifted straight from the Porsche Cayman. This car uses an electric powertrain. Even the Porsche logo font was copied by the company (font used by Porsche to write model name on earlier gen cars ) as can be seen in images here.

Huanghai Aurora vs Ssangyong Rexton

Mahindra bought the Ssangyong brand a few years ago and bought the Rexton SUV to India. To let you know, the Alturas G4 is also based on the SsangYong Rexton G4. A Chinese car manufacturer called Huanghai launched a cloned version of the previous generation Rexton SUV long back and it looked like a disaster of sorts. Called the Huanghai Aurora, it has almost the same front end design as the SsangYong SUV.

Huanghai CUV vs Hyundai Santa Fe

Apart from the Rexton, Huanghai also launched a cloned model of the earlier generation Hyundai Santa Fe SUV. Named as the Huanghai CUV, this SUV looks a lot like the Korean SUV when viewed from the front.

Image source – 5, 8