Chinese Smart Clone Humiliated with Debut in Parking Lot at Bologna
Last week Automotive News reported that Daimler AG had prevented Chinese automaker, Shuanghuan Automobile, from showing their Smart ForTwo clone, the Bubble, from making its public appearance at the Bologna Motor Show in Italy this week through a temporary court injuntion.
With an empty space on the show floor at Bologna, European distributor for the Bubble, Martin Motors, argues the vehicles are clearly not the same since the Bubble is a four seater, front-engined front wheel drive vehicle compared to the Smart which is rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive two seater. Confident in their argument, Martin Motors, felt it wanted the media to decide for themselves and brought the Bubble to the parking lot of the Bologna Motor Show anyway, despite the court order.
Shuanghuan, is no stranger to intellectual property infringement subpoena's as the Chinese car maker is also in a similar dispute with BMW regarding the similar looking CEO model SUV, which closely resembles the X5. Sales of the CEO began in Romania and Italy earlier this year in which only 22 CEO's were sold in Italy.
Martin Motor's is still proceeding with European homologation, but sales remain on hold until a court decision is made whether Daimler's copyright has been violated.
What do you think? Copy or not?
Sad indeed. The CEO is clearly a rip off of the homely BMW truck but this Semi-Smart I'm not so sure. In any event the basis of the argument is that sales may be lost due to consumer confusion. Anyone who doesn't see the difference really shouldn't have a drivers license,
I dont have anything againest chinese, but the dont make anything orignal, i think smart look better
Did You see the UFO car froom these same people it looks exactly like a rav4
no one is gonna take these companies seriously at all on the evidence of this. its bloody embarassing. and for company to defend the car is just ridiculous.
Shuanghuan Automobile needs to be mature in automotive design. So far, the other Chinese competitors are using their own designs. They are: SAIC, Haifei and Brilliance.
i think the basic design of the "bubble" is a rip off... when looked @ from the front and rear one sees clearly what MB means when they talk about this thing being too similiar to the smart forTwo... the fact that the bubble is a 4 seater and front engine is meaningless since the chineses love to tweak deatails like that in order to throw judges off...
ask anyone on the street in europe where the smart has it's motor, my guess 90% will answer it has it's motor in the front... only 10% will know the correct answer...
how were they humiliated? i read the article thinking they did something stupid and made them look rly bad but i got to the end and thought "that's it??"
I thought they threw tomatoes and eggs on it or gave it a wedge, wheres the humiliation in that. well its nice to know that they're trying to take up market share, lol... honestly MB should'nt be worried a bit, cause if you smash that thing (bubble, lol) while you're doing 60 , its bad new for you, the smart thou... i mean why couldn't that Shuanghuan put more effort in design and develope it to be something like toyota's iQ concept
it is humiliating to show a car in a parking lot in a major car show especially a car that is copied.
I live in Romania and was astonished when I saw the CEO. I didn't know what to believe, the back of the car is 90% identical to the X5 back.
during the early years of the automobile , weren't all cars looking pretty much the same with their "horseless carriage" appearance ? in the 20s as well as the 30s , didn't all cars looked like gangstermobiles ? during the 40s and the 50s , basically every car was wrought out of a bulbuous sheet metal mold . by the 60s and the 70s , every car sold started to adopt a more squarish profile . the mid-seventies ushered in the era of the Italian wedge and a lot of auto manufacturers followed suit. and even until recent times , car designers have tried their hand at shamelessly mimicking Chris Bangle's groundbreaking flame surfacing styling flourishes , Mercedes including. but what was so strange about all of it , gentlemen , is that NOBODY MADE A BIG FUSS ABOUT WHO IS INFRINGING WHOM REGARDING ANOTHER'S DESIGN IDEA/S. Mercedes-Benz is obviously displaying its deep-seated insecurity over a new automotive player in the field, China. if the global community thinks that the Bubble is merely a rolling piece of junk , so be it. but in the interest of fair play , let Shuanghuan Automobile profess its chosen trade unhindered in its course. after all , the Motorwagen and the Model T Ford were in no way different from primitive , horse-drawn carriages .
and oh, Mercedes-Benz. . . i propose that you initiate efforts to donate your behemoth of a "future concept sedan" shamelessly exhibited at this year's Frankfurt Auto Show , to the White Sands Missle Firing Range for a more useful application of its purpose. humanity has no need for this rolling piece of grotesquerie.
Copy. I mean, come on... let's be original!
As a designer I can understand the reaction of Daimler. But in my opinion it is a "very" simimilar concept, but not a copy. Why? There are enogh differences, or do you believe that heidi klum is a copy of claudia schiffer? The main problem it´s maybe the same customer group, which is not enough for two similar concepts from two manifacturers...with very different prices!
BTW, BMW's Bangle butt design is a Hyundai XG300 ripoff/inspired design. The XG300 introduced the butt/trunk protruding further than the two rear head lights design. Chris Bangle just made it look better on the 7 series when it debuted later.
Taking styling cues is fine, but Shuanghuan should be shut down and put outta it's misery. This is just too much.
wow this dude reallly needs to get some fresh ideas... i mean that X5 CEO clone is exactly the X5... far too close to the real thing... whats this companies name anyways??? Chinese?? cuz thats... wow how creative lol **eyes roll** what an old fool serves him right selling on 22 or so CEO SUV's ahaha
This company has the same business plan as the Chinese vendors on Canal St. in NYC who sell bootleg DVDs...take somebody else's hard work and design, reproduce it in an inferior fashion, and try to pawn it off on ignorant consumers.
in fact,this car ins't popular.
hm...but there have anther car very popular,like spark,name's QQ
This only can happen in China! From IP perspective, it is scarely! It must be regulated earlier, otherwise soon you will see clone Ferrari, Clone Porsche, Clone etc...
I am a chinese,and very sad about it.