BYD T6 – a 2.0 litre Porsche Cayenne Clone

The BYD T6 - a 2.0 litre Porsche Cayenne Clone

We do still think of Chinese goods as being cheap rip-offs of Western Goods. But the news yesterday about the next generation electric car battery technology should make us look at what the Chinese are doing in a different light. And then this crops up!

BYD, the Chinese car maker responsible for the advances in battery technology we reported yesterday does, like most Chinese car makers, have a history of ‘cloning’ cars from the west. One of the most notable recent clones we saw (although not made by BYD) was the Geely GE Rolls Royce rip-off, with a big throne in the back!. Amusing, at least from an outsiders perspective, although Rolls Royce weren’t amused by Geely’s plagiarism.

But news in today shows that despite BYD’s innovative technology they still can’t resist playing the cloning game. The picture you see above was sourced from a Chinese car forum, and purports to show a BYD version of the Porsche Cayenne. Although it’s clearly a shot of a Cayenne with a BYD grill Photoshopped on, it is quite plausible. And appears, if the forum is to be believed, that the BYD T6 will sport a 2.0 litre engine (which means it will have to be an origami Cayenne or it’ll never manage to turn the wheels), and will be introduced in September 2010.

If it turns out to be real we’ll bring you more news when we get it. But although BYD will get away with such blatant cloning in their home market, BYD would never get away with selling it in the West.

Porsche would be apoplectic!

Source: Car Scoop