Back here I said GM was ready to sue Chery over the copying of the design of the GM Daewoo Matiz. Well, they’re suing and good for them. If the Chinese want to compete in the world markets with all of the vaunted capabilities of their billions of people, the least they can do is create something original.
Malcolm Bricklin, who’s planning to import the Chery, seems to see no problem with bringing over a car that has simply stolen the work of another company. His company, Visionary Vehicles, talks about looking for the right vehicle to bring to the US, unfortunately Chery’s “vision” is more like looking over someone else’s shoulder as they do the design work. Back when I went to school, they called that cheating, maybe I’m not visionary enough for the world today.
It will be interesting to see how this case turns out since it’s being heard by a court in Beijing. Are they willing to prosecute and find for a foreign plaintiff? Harley Davidson, Ducati and all of the other motorcycle manufacturers should be paying close attention to this case since they seem to be ready to set up shop over there. As this article states, Honda and Toyota are having their own problems with the Chinese. Not good.