Jianghuai Automobile Co to unveil Ford F-150 clone

Jianghuai Automobile Co to unveil Ford F-150 clone

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it is said, and with that do we come to the clone of the week segment.

According to reports, Chinese state-owned automaker Jianghuai Automobile Co is planning to unveil a pickup at the Beijing auto show in April. Nothing quite out of the ordinary, except that the vehicle will supposedly, ahem, borrow certain exterior design details from the Ford F-150, which is seen in the pix above (no, that’s not the clone!).

The JAC 4R3, as the pickup will be known as, will share the F-150’s grille, hood and extended cab design, and to top it off will also wear Ford’s distinctive blue oval, The Detroit News originally reported.

Ford, meanwhile, hasn’t decided whether to take legal action against JAC, the newspaper said. “We’re aware of it and we’re investigating. We’re just trying to get an idea of what’s going on with the vehicle and haven’t decided what our next steps might be,” a Ford spokesperson told the publication.

Chinese automakers have often been accused of producing clones of foreign vehicle models, and there’s little that can be done to stop it, it seems – apparently, automakers that have filed lawsuits against their imitators in the country’s courts have had little success in halting the spawning tide.

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Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • Visitor on Feb 17, 2012 at 4:44 pm

    Copyright = The right to copy…

    that was what my former colleague told me about the situation in China.

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  • Boon King on Feb 17, 2012 at 4:46 pm

    WOW! nice. Will sell here if lower price.

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  • mnazri.tan on Feb 17, 2012 at 4:50 pm

    how can anyone ever stop them…even if they replicate the aventador…its a state own car manufacturer…

    in that sense, perhaps we should be proud that at the very least….P1 and P2 aint that nasty…

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    • nighttrain on Feb 17, 2012 at 5:26 pm

      I hope they do, can buy a 200hp aventador lookalike for RM150,000?

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      • kadajawi on Feb 17, 2012 at 7:20 pm

        200 hp? Why would you want that? You’d be the laughing stock everywhere, when a Golf GTI or modified Kancil overtakes you and you have no chance of keeping up.

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  • anti-first on Feb 17, 2012 at 5:22 pm

    if chinese automakers decide to copy P1/P2 design, it’s a sign that doomsday is coming soon. :)

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    • then its coming…youngman paid proton to replicate the gen2..careful what u wish for.

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  • nighttrain on Feb 17, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    Where’s the link to previous clones? It’d be nice to have a site that features clones..

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    • Danny Tan (Member) on Feb 17, 2012 at 5:27 pm

      Here are some “inspired models” from Guangzhou 2010, not full clones, though

      http://paultan.org/2010/12/29/auto-guangzhou-domestic-carmakers-have-suv-envy/

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  • Hyundai De Junk on Feb 17, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    How lot’s of grumble when China Copy US truck, but silent when the Korean openly copy BMW & VW ? The German should sue to Korean Pirate till their pants dropped off.

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    • squall_shinoda on Feb 17, 2012 at 6:56 pm

      There’s no proof that justifies your claim elsewhere. Korean carmakers never explicitly copy other car designs. Of course some designs may look similar but that happens due to current car design trend. Even if they never copy certain designs, there will definitely be aftermarket parts with those particular design cues. Look at Toyota’s Altezza lights, BMW’s ‘angle eyes’ and Audi’s DRLs… they became so iconic that they would set some de facto standards in car designs.

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    • kadajawi on Feb 17, 2012 at 7:21 pm

      Where do the Koreans copy BMW and VW? Are new Kias ugly? No? Ok, so where do they copy BMW then? Hyundais are way to curvy to copy a VW. Please do enlighten me what models you are taking about.

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    • 2 wrongs don’t make a right.

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    • Visitor on Feb 17, 2012 at 8:32 pm

      100% agree. When talk about copy, nobody beat the Korean.

      In the past, Korean claimed Confucius was Korean.
      Now Korean claimed Jeremy Lin is a Korean.
      Now Korean claimed that their car is not copy from BMW and VW.

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      • These korean fanboy never went to korea be4 that’s why….they copied the mercedes,toyota,suzuki even harrier and landrover…..
        Blind fanboys….chinese carmaker copy directly…korean copy and modified it….
        Copying something and change bit here and there is not copying?get a life….

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        • kadajawi on Feb 18, 2012 at 1:26 pm

          In the case of Ssangyong copying Mercedes… they are partners, and Ssangyong has the license to build cars based on Mercedes vehicles. Early Daewoos were licensed from Opel, Suzuki etc., just like the Proton Tiara was licensed from Citroen, while the Saga/Iswara, Wira, Satria and Perdana were licensed from Mitsubishi. Yes, they were copys, but legal ones.

          Chinese carmakers often do not pay any royalties, and under the surface the cars may differ greatly from the model they try to imitate. There are a few more legit manufacturers, those who do their own designs (even though they may have started by copying), those who have licensing agreements or even have simply bought the original company (as Roewe used to be Rover before the Chinese bought all the rights except for the name).

          Most car makers start like this (unless perhaps they are Mercedes Benz and basically invented the car). The Japanese have started by copying American cars. The Koreans have. Malaysian ones too. That is normal, and as we can see with the Japanese they have become legit, producing good cars. The Koreans too have turned legit (although you could argue that licensed copies really are not a problem at all, otherwise all old Protons and all Peroduas were fakes and illegal copies). Proton has also jumped to the level of doing their own designs and engineering, and some Chinese companies have too. Others haven’t, but the better, stronger ones will, eventually (while the small sheds churning out dirt cheap fakes will eventually collapse or be swallowed up by the big ones).

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    • Koreans copy bmw/audi? here are some facts. u can choose to relate (or not) and remain delusional with your comments, choice is yours.

      Sang Yup Lee – Born and bred Korean is the Chief designer of the 2010 Dodge Camaro, which revived the dying icon, Americans will vouch for this. He is now with VW/Audi having joined them in Jan 2010.

      You can read abt his achievements here. http://www.cardesignnews.com/site/designers/whos_where/display/store4/item182267/

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  • William on Feb 17, 2012 at 8:15 pm

    http://www.automotonews.ru/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/JAC-Ford-F-150-223.jpg

    OMG!! it totally looks the same on the front but not the on the door…

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    • banzai on Feb 19, 2012 at 10:40 pm

      clone will never beat the genuine one.
      but it’s true! it really looks alike. Damn!

      http://www.carnewschina.com/2012/01/31/spy-shots-jac-4r3-pickup-truck-from-china-is-gunning-for-the-ford-f150/

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    • Davion on Mar 02, 2012 at 5:17 pm

      Great another piece of junk! 1bil people in the country and they cannot come up with something original.

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  • ko malu saje... on Feb 17, 2012 at 8:19 pm

    Jianghuai = naughty naghty huh?

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  • Jeremy Clarkson on Feb 17, 2012 at 8:23 pm

    China car maker love playing with fire, A lot of cases already like the BMW X5 clone, Daihatsu Terios, Rolls royce phantom and many more…. (until uncountable =/

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  • Gavin on Feb 17, 2012 at 8:40 pm

    Does it come with eploding seats, exploding door, melamine air conditioning

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  • Jeremy Clarkson on Feb 17, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    Also one thing, safety standards is the only thing that they can never copy up to international/EU/American standard, other than design.

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    • kadajawi on Feb 18, 2012 at 12:49 am

      Uhmm…. 2 new Chinese cars were tested by EuroNCAP. Both 4 stars… same as Jaguar XF. Not up to EU standards? I don’t think so. EuroNCAP expects some new Chinese cars next year to have 5 stars, i.e. as good as any conti, and way above what the Japs sell here (mind you, when the Chinese sell us cars they will be just as dangerous as the Japs).

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  • donadoni on Feb 17, 2012 at 9:25 pm

    are there anything that china don’t copy? i don’t think so.

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  • Jianghuai = soooo naughty

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  • lemon on Feb 18, 2012 at 1:45 am

    i don think ford will sue. If they do, they cant sell anythg in china ending up losing the chance to grab the single country biggest market in the world

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  • banzai on Feb 19, 2012 at 10:55 pm

    try to look at this…

    http://www.carnewschina.com/tag/glow/

    it does look like our Proton EMAS. Am I right? But with four doors and a crippled face…

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  • emily on Feb 20, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    lembu punya susu , sapi dapat nama. they have goverment on their side, there ‘s nothing Ford can do.

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