Mini and Rolls Royce clones at Shanghai show
01/05/09 09:28 Filed in: News
Somehow I didn’t manage to get to the
Shanghai Motor Show. Our accountant (Mrs Driveblog) refused to pay
for the private jet that I had planned to whisk me off to
China.
Had I made it to China, among the many interesting vehicles I would have seen were what appeared to be a Mini and a Rolls Royce. But neither had anything to do with parent company BMW.
The Lifan 320 is clearly designed to ape the looks of the new generation Mini, while the extraordinary Geely Englon GE three-seater (Englon apparently is a combination of England and London!) clearly wants to look like a mini Rolls Royce, complete with an interpretation of the classic grille flanked by the rectangular headlights of recent Rolls Royces.
It’s hard not to imagine Rolls Royce taking some action to protect its brand image.
The more serious interest apparently centred on new offerings from MG and Roewe, the company that arose out of the Rover collapse.
Had I made it to China, among the many interesting vehicles I would have seen were what appeared to be a Mini and a Rolls Royce. But neither had anything to do with parent company BMW.
The Lifan 320 is clearly designed to ape the looks of the new generation Mini, while the extraordinary Geely Englon GE three-seater (Englon apparently is a combination of England and London!) clearly wants to look like a mini Rolls Royce, complete with an interpretation of the classic grille flanked by the rectangular headlights of recent Rolls Royces.
It’s hard not to imagine Rolls Royce taking some action to protect its brand image.
The more serious interest apparently centred on new offerings from MG and Roewe, the company that arose out of the Rover collapse.