Sure it's easy to criticise chinese design, but their auto industry has been around for a lot less than most established western car makers. Just like anyone who is learning to design cars, chances are that the first attempt is not always the best but if you succeed you will improve over time. Just look at how far the japanese have gotten. Of course it will be a long time coming, if ever, before a toyota will emote the same response as a ferrari. As far as giant xerox machine...well the same train of thought can be applied to 80% of the cars in the U.S. market. In Europe there is definitely a rennaisance movement of automotive forms, take for instance BMW, Renault, Peugeot. Each one is carving out their own stylistic amd sometimes controversial niche. No one would confuse any new Renault for a BMW or a Peugeot. It will only become a matter of time before the chinese will make their mark as well. The question is whether they will follow the japanses model of repetitious refinement or branch out into something more adventurous.
This is a pretty interesting topic, chinese design is definitely in its infancy and this is just a time to experiment. there might be a lot of copycat designs here and there but some are really going the adventurous route,
distinctive styling will take a while to be widespread, but considering china's the cultural diversity of china i beleve more dinstinctive designs are to come.
China is the new superpower, in 20 years they will have surpassed the U.S... it's good for the world-balance that there will also be an Asian superpower so not just western. They are great tradepartners, cheap labor and products and a huge export market.
If any company is starting in the business the first thing they should do is try to find their own mark. I don't think you guys quite understand how serious this is. It's not that the chinese auto industry is still infant and innocent and will find their own way in a matter of time. The real problem is that chinese industries have been copying ideas from the rest of the world for decades, and this is getting so serious that now even cars are copied.
If you ever did some research about fake products, you'll find that China is a the contry that holds more industries related to faking products in the whole world. These don't sell much in the 1st world, but down here it's a mafia that makes almost every industry lose billions of dollars.
For example, the Wang Feng is a copy of the Escalade down to the last bolt. And what's worst is that the chinese government is not punishing these industries. Not a single auto company ever one a case against a chinese company even in the most obvious situations.
You need eye-glasses, the Wang Feng looks nothing like the Escalade! If that's the best example you can give I have to wonder... Japan is the land of copying, they've been copying designs as long as they make cars. Lexus in especial, one big Mercedes/BMW fraude... Korea as well, the new Kia Picanto looks a lot like the Citroen C2...
I think that the Chinese are doing well considering they're just beginning, they can pose a big threat to the other Asian carmakers as they can make similar cars for less money.
Jabor, woah chill dude... I was focusing my comments specifically in regards to the "design" aspect of the chinese auto industry.
but since you've broadened the scope of your criticism on the chinese auto industry.. I would have to agree with you on the copying comments. However as far as corruption in government and industry it is hard for me to criticise them on that level because modern economic superpower has "cooperative agreements" between industry and gov't. Renault is partly owned by the french gov't the japanese helped prop up their automakers in the past and remember the U.S. gov't had to bail out chrysler in the early 80's.
China's human rights policy as well as their trade policy has not been exactly stellar. Every company that does business in china knows that they risk theft of their intellectual property, but at the same time it would be commercial suicide not to invest in china, given that all of their competitors are doing business there. Yeah it sucks, but that's how it is, there currency has fixed exchange rates that keep labor low, inflation artificially low. But the world economy is at China's mercy, the WTO has had numerous attempts to restrict what China can and cannot do, but have caved into commercial interests from the companies that want access the labor and consumer markets in China. I'm sure Mao is smiling in his grave right now because the capitalistic societies of the world are reliant on chinese labor to power the economies of non communist countries world wide. China is a conundrum...simple as that, but I stand by my earlier post...that was limited strictly in terms of design. If designs being copied is a problem, simply move on to newer better designs, keep one step ahead...I mean that is why we study design.
The problem is that the copying is happening so fast that the foreign companies are faced with having to compete against cheap copies of their own products almost as soon as they can design them and bring them to market...
China doesn't need design because they have the other great advantage: price. Anyone who can sell a $5,000 car in the US need not worry about sales so long as the thing gets down the road. That's where they really need to do their work. No one will buy at any price if the car can't be trusted. (Remember the Yugo?) The quickest way to quality is to copy what successfully works now, and that's what they're doing. The fact that their government doesn't care about niceties such as patents helps a lot. Of course, their government doesn't care about much in the way of western values.
