New Lexux RX? No, it’s a BYD S6

The BYD S6 SUV. Or is its a LExus RX?

Chinese car maker BYD are producing an SUV – the BYD S6 – which appears to be a clone of the Lexus RX.

You may remember back in May that we reported on a Porsche Cayenne clone from Chinese car maker BYD, which appeared to be a complete rip-off of the SUV from Stuttgart. At the time we weren’t too sure whether the image we had was just a Photoshop or a real leak from BYD, but things have moved on for BYD and it seems they had no intention of making a Cayenne clone after all. It’s a Lexus RX clone instead.

The picture above is not a Photoshop but a real car. The profile is unmistakeably Lexus RX, although the nose is a little different. And this time the car – the BYD S6 SUV – has been caught out in the wild, so there’s no getting away from the fact that this is for real. Lexus will be chuffed.

Rumour has it that the BYD S6 will be powered by the same arthritic 2.0 litre lump we initially expected to go in to the Cayenne clone. Which should be good for 0-60mph in around 15 days. But it’s hard to argue with the price – around  150k Yuan. Which is about £13,000.

On a different – but not exactly unrelated – bit of news, it’s been revealed that China has exported just 745 cars to the EU this year. Which should please European car makers. But they shouldn’t rest easy. China may make cars like the BYD S6 for domestic consumption – and we may think of it as a bit of a joke – but they are becoming a real car making powerhouse. BYD themselves are world leaders in car battery technology – not just makers of cheap Chinese clones – and we underestimate them at our peril.

Interestingly, almost all the cars exported from China went to Italy. What does that tell us?