How China Made a Range Rover at ₹ 15 Lakhs !!

You land in China and you see a Land Rover Range Rover Evoque, at a price point of 50 lakhs, and then you see its copy at a price point of 15 lakh rupees, in which you get the same looks, same proportion, and then you go a bit ahead and see a Porsche, at a price point of 80 lakhs, but you see its copy at a price point of 20 lakhs, which looks same, even it's interior also. and then you go a bit ahead and see a Defender, at a price point of 50 lakhs, but you see its copy at a price point of 80 lakhs, with better offroading capabilities than Defender, so what's going on in China, that they copy every car, and no one is going to say anything.

For this, let's go to the Asian car market of the 1970s, when the trend of copying was very prevalent, where in the 1970s, we didn't have so much money so we didn't have enough money to make such good cars, and to design, but the same time, in America and western market, many sexy cars' manufacturing was in process, so our Japanese car makers started copying them, in which they copied American jeep and made their own Jeep, which looked almost same, and in fact, it was more reliable

Toyota copied Ford Mustang and made Toyota Celica, and its look was almost the same. Similarly, Mitsubishi and Honda also copied some cars and expanded their market, but at that time, there were no local car makers in China, Japanese and Western car makers were selling the cars, and growing the market, but in the 1990s, China's economy started booming, people got money and became rich. And local car companies started coming to China, for example, BYD Auto, Chery Geely, and Great Wall, their names are quite weird but what can we do, this is what their language is. But the problem was that Chinese people didn't trust Chinese car makers, and Western car makers like Toyota BMW, or Mercedes, they used to trust them because of their big international reputation, and good aspirational value, which when people used to buy their cars they used feel proud.

But Chinese car makers weren't able to match them, they never had their own aspirational value, people weren't feeling proud of buying their cars, because their cars didn't have anything special, and there was no fun in seeing their cars. So a normal company would work hard and build its aspirational value, but Chinese people are a bit smart, they thought that if we are not able to build our own aspirational value, then why not copy those who have good aspirational value? Why waste your time when you can just copy?

This is absolutely right. -So genuine. This is what Chinese brands started doing, and started copying Western and international car makers, and the first participant who made the first copy, and shook the Chinese car market, that’s name is Chery. And they copied it wholeheartedly. They weren't kidding, they copied it wholeheartedly. They didn't feel that they have copied, they were saying that don't know why the car is getting manufactured so fast, and we didn't copy anyone.

There was a brand of General Motors named Daewoo in the early 2000s there was Daewoo Matiz which was a compact and affordable hatchback, which was made to target the Asian market. And it was manufactured in China also. Chery took this car exactly the same, and by keeping the lights different, took its shape exactly the same, the doors of both cars were coming from the same supplier, and made their car Chery QQ, and they catch over was its price which was half of that of Matiz, as launched 1-1.5 years before the launch of Matiz in China, and then its sales increased by 4x, as compared to GM Matiz, literally 4x more.

GM started facing losses because they had 8000 employees in the China factory no one was buying their cars, so what would those 8k employees do? When a Chinese company is selling the same looking car at half price point, it happened to me also, I was giving an exam in my class and I didn't study for that exam, and I told another person to study and help me to cheat, he helped me and I got more marks than him, go significantly higher marks, he felt so bad that he stopped helping me. I am not saying that I am Chinese and I am good at copying, I am just telling that something similar had happened.

                                

And then the international dominance of the Honda CRV started increasing because it was performing well in the Western market, and also the Chinese people were preferring this car, so one of the Chinese companies launched the SRV which has the same looks as the SRV longer on the sides, and you get same tail-lights on the back, you get a bit different interior, but the car is almost same. And if you exchange the badges, it would look like

Honda CRV. Even its name was kept SRV and its price was significantly lower than Honda SRV. And people started spending money on it. But due to this, other Chinese car makers got confidence, they thought that if we copy an international car, our sales would also increase. So one of the Chinese companies launched its Victory, which was a copy of the Cadillac Escalade.

Geely launched its Merrie 300 which was a copy of the Mercedes C Class. Jiangling launched its TD which was a copy of the Maruti 800, and Ruico launched its Doda Fiat, which was a copy of the Toyota Elford. And the whole Chinese car market was filled with copies, you started getting copies of the exact same car in every second showroom, which comes at half price and offers the same features.

And it is able to happen so blindly in China because the IP rights of China are very different, as compared to other countries, every country follows the Berney convention, in which if a company makes a thing in any country, do whatever the country that comes under Berney convention,  its copyright would be followed in every country.

For example, suppose, I am making a car in India so all the patents of my car would be followed in every country which comes to the Berney convention! Almost every country comes under the Berne convention, in fact, comes in China, and China doesn't follow these rules. China has its own IP rules, that favor local Chinese manufacturers. And IP rights in the car industry in China are that if you want a patent then if you display your car in a state-recognized show, in which you have to get your car patented within six months, if you don't do this then every local Chinese manufacturer has right, of copying its whole design and looks, you can't do anything.

The government is asking openly to copy, there is no fear. And if an international company has to manufacture locally in China then they can do manufacturing after collab with a local manufacturer, can't open their own independent business. So, suppose a company starts manufacturing in China so they have to explain patents and designs to Chinese companies, and many times, Chinese company leaks design in the market, for some money. So literally, every person gets patents that how to make that car.

And the poor company spends years making products and then some local Chinese manufacturers start making them, and due to this, many international companies have filed lawsuits against them, and every time the Chinese government favors Chinese companies, in which when Chery made QQ in 2004, which was the copy of Matiz, so General Motors accused this brand that you have copied our car, so stop its production!

The case went to court and the court said clearly, that Chery doesn't look like Matiz, and has taken a little bit of inspiration, and that too because of the increasing demand for cars in the market. So this brand can sell its car blindly, there is no issue, and we won't stop them. Then Honda did complaints against SRV that this company is selling similar-looking cars. And this is ruining our sales.

And asked for $200 million as compensation due to this car. The case went to court and continued for many years, and the compensation that Honda got was just $12 million. And till that time, the brand had sold cars worth thousands of crores. And there was no one to stop them. And if this is not enough, then in 2012, Geely tried to copy Corolla, and they copied the badge also of Toyota, then Toyota filed a case that you copying out badge and logo also, and then the court put a decision in favor of Geely, that you have independence, sell the cars, we won't say anything.

Literally, they are so much partial that they have so much power that you can't do anything. Once they made a copy named X7 of Land Rover Evoque, and you get everything same in that car, and then Land Rover filed a case, and the first time, a foreign company won the case, in which the court asked Landwind that you can't sell this car because it is the exact same copy of Land Rover Evoque, and all this is hampering their brand value. And then Porsche also filed a case, on Zoyte who are copying their Macan.

And the case is going on in the court, there is no hearing. If you see the trend in copycat cars that they are copying the exact looks of the car, for example, Lanwind X7 was the copy of the Land Rover Evoque, but its size was more, there was more wheelbase and space, there was a bigger engine, and the price was 1/4th of that of the original car, so the consumers are getting a bigger car with same looks and the price you have to pay is 1/4th, then I have a huge incentive of buying this car, and all those car makers were able to make so cheap cars because the huge cost is in R&D of a car, and they don't have to do any R&D, they have to manufacture directly, so a lot of their money got saved so they reduced the car costing.

Foreign car makers can't do anything now. And there were so many copies that car makers stopped filing cases, they started giving arguments that suppose if a person is going to buy a Porsche, he will never buy Zoyte because they know what brand value and performance Porsche would offer a Zoyte copy won't do this.

So the car makers stopped filing the case, and now the Chinese people are boycotting these copy cars because they don't want to drive because they were feeling ashamed, there were so many copycat cars. So many car makers who used to make copycat cars earlier now they are hiring their independent designers and making their brand image so that the consumers don't feel that they are buying a copy. And you tell, me which one is your favorite Chinese copy mine is Landwind X7 and Yangwang U9 and U8.