Some time ago, Deng Tao, the design director of Zhiji Automobile, posted on Weibo angrily criticizing "his own models have been plagiarized by friends many times", which caused heated discussions, and in the tweet, Mr. Xu said: "I look stupid when I get up in the morning, since the appearance of Zhiji L7 in 2021, we have encountered the embarrassing situation of plagiarism in the appearance design many times." Subsequently, he also accompanied this text with three pictures to prove his claim, which are "Dongfeng Wind Planet Sea S7, Zhiji L7 and the comparison pictures of the two models." And judging from the pictures, the styling of the two models is indeed very similar.
Coincidentally, the hot-selling Xiaomi SU7 during this period of time was actually ridiculed by netizens because of the appearance of the model and the Porsche TayCan, and in the recent 20 years of the automobile market, it is not difficult for us to find that in fact, the face collision between models between different brands is not new, such as the most well-known Porsche, Zotye SR9 is famous because of its appearance similar to Porsche.
For example, in 2018, Geely took the new power brand Weimar, which was known as a dark horse at the time, to court, because Geely believed that some design elements of Weimar's EX5 model were suspected of plagiarizing Geely Vision SUV, and after a long trial, the court finally ruled in favor of Geely, and WM Motor not only affected its reputation but also needed to pay a huge amount of compensation, which also directly or indirectly led to the decline of Weimar in the following years.
So, since plagiarism may bring trouble to itself if it harms others and oneself, why do some car companies dare to wade into the water and engage in "rubbing edges" with great fanfare?
From the perspective of car companies, of course, it is "profitable". On the one hand, the R&D and design of automobiles is an extremely money-burning thing, even if the exterior and interior design seems to have no technical content, it also requires a lot of intellectual labor, and the process not only needs to be designed as a whole with the body structure, but also requires a certain amount of art and art skills.
Therefore, for many car companies, directly "reference" the design elements of ready-made models and carry them to their own products, it is naturally a matter of saving money and effort, and on the other hand, if you choose to imitate some excellent products with good sales, you may be able to rub a wave of traffic, especially those luxury car products are often the object of plagiarism, after all, for some consumers, it is also a good experience to be able to buy a product with a "luxury car face" at a low price.
From the perspective of rights defenders, it is not easy to protect their own interests. Because for plagiarism, many times there is no exact standard, most plagiarists understand this truth, so let their own models wander between "similarity" and "plagiarism", so that the face collision becomes a seemingly accidental thing.
For example, copy a little here, copy a little there, piece it together, and then integrate some of your own ideas, the boundary of "intellectual property" is gradually blurred, just like today's smartphone market, whenever a design element is popular, there are a large number of manufacturers to follow suit, and it is difficult for you to directly judge plagiarism.
From this point of view, the face collision of the model is not entirely caused by plagiarism, and the homogeneity of design is also a characteristic of the automotive industry in recent years. After all, compared with the era of fuel vehicles, the German and Japanese design styles are different, and today's electric vehicles always feel the same as the whole, with a concise front face and a streamlined body, and there seems to be no more personalized things in addition.
In this regard, Zhang Hong, a member of the Expert Committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said: "There is a significant difference between the internal structure of electric vehicles and gasoline vehicles, which is the fundamental reason for the convergence of appearance. Electric cars do not have an engine and do not need to take air from the front end, so the front face design can be more closed and concise. At the same time, the chassis needs to be flat and heightened to accommodate the placement of the overall battery. In order to reduce wind resistance and reduce power consumption, the door handles have been concealed, and the wheels have been closed. Some models even replace mirrors with in-car screens. These design commonalities not only simplify the manufacturing process and reduce the cost of building cars, but also make many new energy vehicles similar in appearance. ”