Chinese did not even leave the RR Phantom!! Gosh!!

Earlier this week, Chinese automaker Geely's new GE model, a three-seat luxury sedan was unveiled at the Shanghai Motor Show. With its gigantic, upright waterfall grille, boxy proportions, Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament, and LED starlight headliner, it didn't take an enthusiast's eye to see that Geely is openly aping the Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Understandably, that development hasn't been sitting well with Rolls-Royce officials, who promptly got on the horn to their lawyers after clapping their eyes on the GE. While the British luxury firm has stopped short of saying they intend to sue, according to an article in the U.K. Telegraph, a Rolls-Royce spokesman admits "Rolls-Royce is currently keeping its options open and is in consultation with its legal advisers."

At an estimated £30,000 – around $44k USD – for the GE (versus £250,000/$365k for the Phantom), it could be argued that few are likely to confuse the two vehicles, but even still, critics argue that Roller would appear to have a compelling case that cars like the GE are not only intellectual property theft, but that they could also serve to erode brand equity of the genuine article.








the reason for a single seat at the back is for safety of the owner since the car cannot pass euro NCAP side crash tests and will get zero stars, just like any Chinese car.
so, this layout does guarantee certain level of protection because you never know whether the side airbags may deflate or not.
source: chinese.autoblog.com and TOI and tbhp

wow kudos to chinese car maker GEEly to do this superb copy from original, what else do you expect from china.Nice info hummer.

:shock: Oh man!These chinese are such a big copy cats!
This looks exact to Rolls even the starlight roof is also copied!
But rear can accomodate only one?

Its not bad. I like it, though I wouldn't buy it.

Looks nice to me too, Its a cheap substitue of Rolls Royce Phantom for chinese people. ;)

RoadRocket

yeah. its damn cheap. the rear seat seems funny to me. looks like a command center of some alien.lol

A copy and that too only 1 seat at the back.
Consider themselves super luxurious or what.
Even if the original RR be uglier than this, i'd go for that if I had enough money :)

may be they might have thought to give some original style and design and put only one rear seat, like hummer said alien would love to be seated there and order :lol!:

thackervijay wrote:may be they might have thought to give some original style and design and put only one rear seat, like hummer said alien would love to be seated there and order :lol!:

:lol!: maybe next time they will come up with nano copy with no seats.

Good Find Hummer!!

Looks alike RR but single seat at rear is too worse :(

China's Geely denies copying Rolls Royce
A Chinese auto company has denied on its new car was a copy of a Rolls-Royce but the luxury brand said it was keeping its options open about legal action.


A Chinese auto company denied on Friday its new top-of-the-line car was a copy of a Rolls-Royce, but the world renowned luxury brand said it was keeping its options open about taking legal action.

Geely Automobile, one of China's major independent car makers, launched its GE at this week's Shanghai Auto Show, and the sedan attracted much interest for its resemblance to the iconic Rolls-Royce Phantom limousine.

A Geely spokeswoman admitted Friday that there were some similarities but insisted the GE - which stands for "Geely Excellence" - was an original.

"As it were, they are actually different ... people may feel they are the same at the first glance, but the details are certainly different," spokeswoman Zhang Xiaoshu told AFP.

The glossy black GE, still a prototype, comes with some of the Phantom's signature features, including the grille, down-sloping rear deck, and even a badge that looks like the Rolls-Royce Flying Lady mascot.

On its website, Geely also says the GE is "reinventing the classic", without saying which classic car it is reinventing.

Rolls-Royce said Friday it would not rule out legal action against Geely.

"We are reviewing all our options for this," Rolls-Royce Asia Pacific corporations manager Hal Serudin told AFP when asked if the company would take any legal action when the GE hit the market.

"Some people have asked us 'Are we flattered'," he said, referring to the expression of copying being the sincerest form of flattery.

"We are certainly not flattered by this."

Geely's Zhang said the GE was set to go on sale within three years, probably for about one million yuan ($A204,930), which could be up to a sixth less than a Phantom depending on Chinese taxes.

With the relatively low cost of the GE, Serudin said it would likely not be a serious competitor to the Phantom.

"Due to the pricing of the car, they will not be targeting the same segment of customers. Our customers certainly would not be looking at that sort of pricing," he said.

China's fast-growing automakers, such as Geely and Chery Automobile, are keen to expand into the more profitable high-end segment of the industry.

Such ambitions have drawn similar controversies in the past.

In 2007, Shuanghuan Auto based in northern China drew headlines after it launched vehicles that looked similar to DaimlerChrysler's Smart Fortwo and BMW's X5 sports utility.

source:http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=62401&vf=26