AutoblogGreen

Chinese car companies really need to learn to respect others intellectual property rights. That car screams "cheap knock-off"; the logo is clearly an imitation of BMW's logo, modified so little it is still clearly apparent where the look came from. The grille is clearly copied straight off of Lexus, and the headlamps are cloned right off of BMW. Unless they learn to respect others, they will never get respect themselves.

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>> claiming to have developed their own battery,
>> the "first" in the world using iron

Maybe they actually meant "first stolen."

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Berkana: A few years ago worked for a manufacturer of boats (who shall remain nameless). We had a 2nd hand unit on hand that had a scratch in the hull. It was bought by a Chinese athletics organization. A couple of years later a new model was being produced by a Chinese boat-builder that was remarkably similar to ours... right down to a faint trace of the scratch.

I don't like to generalize about particular groups, but the corporate mentality in China really is shameless.

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THAT is a 7th Generation US-spec Honda Accord. I'm sure the Chinese have dumbed-down the quality, though, as they always do.

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BYD is simply 'window dressing'(as it's known in Wall St and The City)in preperation for what will be a bloody battle for survival amongst Chinese car companies. I am only 'guestimating' but suspect the technology is ancient and batteries takes up the boot/trunk space and more.

The west must realise that for the past 5 years or so Chinese manufactureres have simply been trying to grow their businesses by whatever means they could (eg copycat designs/features etc). Now they are looking at creating the buzz to have the global investment community take an interest and either privately (via private equity) or publicly (via Chinese stock markets). It's not about the car, it's about the business model.

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Thomas Edison made nickel-iron batteries more than a century ago, so that claim is abundantly bogus.

The design looks a lot like many other cars, but thst isn't too suprising - there is a lot of "style copying" going on in the auto industry, and many basic auto parts, including headlamps, are mass produced by parts suppliers for many different models and even different manufacturers.

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It's funny listening to the naiive folks here who think that either the Japs or anybody else can sucessfully compete with the Chinese. The same kind of idiot talk greeted the Japanese when their first less-than-spectacular cars arrived. If this plug-in can do what they say and at the price they have quoted, Toyota better kiss their ass goodbye - they're dogmeat. They are talking about a totally inferior plug-in of their own not happening before 2011. Looks like the Chinese are whipping the rest
of the world pretty good at this electric car business.

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you are all mistaken. BYD use pure iron battery, not nickel-fe or li-fe battery. The technology is fundamentally different.

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Please be patient. We will know what it really is in 2008. The market will tell the truth in its own way.

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"Cheap Knock Off"? "No Respect"? Big automakers sitting on their hands and telling everyone it can't be done or that battery technology still needs more development is what I call a complete lack of respect and an insult to our intelligence. I applaud BYD for breaking rank with the other auto makers and I will laugh as they DESTROY the competition. The only way to save the planet seems to be to buy a BYD electric, where do I sign up?

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