Filed under: Economy, China, Hatchbacks, Toyota
BYD to build world's most expensive Photochop cheapest car at $3,000
China's BYD is planning to build a car called the F-1 which it intends to sell for a mere $3,000. At this point, it's unknown what will propel this little machine but it's a safe bet it won't approach its McLaren-built namesake. Apparently, part of the plan to build the car so cheaply was to not bother paying any designers to style it. Instead, BYD seems to have hired someone who simply knows how to use Photoshop. If you look really, really closely, you might notice the vaguest resemblance between the planned F-1 (top) and the Toyota Aygo (bottom). We're sure Toyota's thrilled to death about this. [Source: ChinaCarTimes]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Yubastard 11:39AM (10/21/2007)
incredible... just incredible...
Hello lawsuit! ;P
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Dennis J Conner 12:07PM (10/21/2007)
cheap knock-off counterfeit - just like movies, music, and lots of other stuff from China
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NeoteriX 3:21PM (10/21/2007)
Generalize much?
why not the LS2LS7? 4:07PM (10/21/2007)
Neo: I take it you've never been to China?
Take a look at the Chery QQ/Chevy Spark.
MJL 12:57PM (10/21/2007)
Are the lawyer's fees for the copyright lawsuit included in the base price, or is that an option?
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Pokey 1:03PM (10/21/2007)
Add this to the long list of Chinese design knock-off cars. They really have no shame, don't they
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Daniel 1:26PM (10/21/2007)
I remember reading that a car company can't be sued for copying another car's styling since you can't copyright a design. I get pissed off just seeing these guys rip off other's designs; I can't imagine being the actual company that was actually copied.
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Nicole 12:29AM (10/22/2007)
I don't think that's true. For example, nobody can make models of Porsche cars and sell them without permission of the Porsche company. Of course, that permission requires you to pay 10% of the wholesale price as licensing fee... Lamborghini is also very aggressive in enforcing this - I once had a Lamborghini shaped keychain taken off ebay because apparently the manufacturer did not have a proper licensing agreement with them.
Since I understand and respect intellectual property, I suggest that we will not allow cars into the country that resemble other cars so closely that consumers cannot distinguish them.
We cannot enforce our laws IN China, but we can enforce them here.
toronado455 2:21PM (10/21/2007)
They didn't even bother changing the wheels or the color.
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k.w.a 3:22PM (10/21/2007)
I dont get it....
These Chinese auto companies have to pay SOMEBODY to design their cars, because it still takes a designer to make the very subtle changes between their cars and the ones tehy're ripping off of. It's not like they're taking two already produced mainstream cars and welding them together (even though it looks like it sometimes).
So, if they already have designers, why can't designers make their own designs?
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Sanfam 10:19PM (10/21/2007)
Easy, and on multiple fronts!
1. Designers are expensive and creativity is an unnecessary risk (see below). It is much easier to take an existing car and say "add this logo here, bulge there" than it is to drastically alter the design. Why do it when you've already got the design stolen from someone else? front and rear lights are easy to produce and alter on a large scale.
2. As with most cases, if the source car is popular, yours very well may be, too. It may seem silly, but the vast undereducated masses would probably never know the difference between the real thing and the knock-off. They see this and think "Ah, that looks like what my friend drives and enjoys so much!" and are now customers. Why risk your product on a unique design that nobody recognizes when you can just steal it from somebody with said recognition instead?
3. Tooling is expensive. It is much easier to acquire the blueprints for an existing chassis and the tooling to produce it and its sheetmetal than it is to do it yourself. With a little creativity, you can shove your choice powertrain under the hood and sell it as a unique product to the hundreds of millions of soon-to-be car buyers. A little money in the right hands saves a lot for the savvy Chinese corporation!
4. Tradition. Not to add to the flood of china-bashing, but they really have established a trend of doing this on all fronts, especially when it comes to items with high initial cost to production items like Cars and Electronics.
Fabri91 3:51PM (10/21/2007)
Hm, the pic of the f1 is definetly a photochopped version of that from the Aygo...hello lawsuit!
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Mohan 3:53PM (10/21/2007)
Well...what else is new, they copy everything else so why cars!
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Mohan 3:54PM (10/21/2007)
I meant to so "why not cars!"
Killenmedpirogen 4:35PM (10/21/2007)
Come on now "copy" at Ferrari F430 allready and call it a carrot. I would buy that!
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Bart 7:02PM (10/21/2007)
As there are no international patent offices, China is pretty much free to copy as they like.
What we need to do as consumers and respected manufacturers, is try to keep these Chinese cars out of our countries where the patents do apply.
Why is there no international patent office? It'd simply be too expensive and too hard to enforce on an international scale. Luckily the EU for example is already making a coordinated effort with all the involved countries.
If China is to be a big player in the future (and they will be considering their growth) they will have to start playing by OUR rules.
Too bad good old fashioned sabotage is outlawed on an international scale, and copying patents isnt.
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yawn 9:10PM (10/21/2007)
This type of design stealing is the end result of a bankrupt society created by a government where human creativity and independent thinking is unwelcome and totally discouraged at all costs to maintain complete and total political control. No surprise this sad state it's finally entering our media radar as China enters the auto age.
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Nicole 3:26AM (1/29/2008)
Everytime I tell somebody that despite high taxes and overly generous government programs, Europe is going to beat us because of their creativity and consistent reinvention of themselves, I get called anti-American.
But in reality, I am saying this because I hope some day someone here wakes up and realizes that I have a point, and does something useful about it.
The strong Euro/weak Dollar should be a wake-up call, but I don't exactly see any panic happening here...
Hank 10:05PM (10/21/2007)
it may look like a toyota, but guess what will happen when it gets into an accident? Hint, think aluminum soda cans, lol.
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rghai6 2:45AM (10/22/2007)
How is this going to be the world's cheapest car? Tata Motors India is coming up with a Rs.100,000 ($2500) car by the first quarter next year. Oh, and btw the Tata car will run on a 600 cc engine.
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