A Rolls-Royce Knock-Off From China

While Rolls-Royce did have some news at the Shanghai auto show, it was largely overshadowed by the debut of a Chinese automaker’s interpretation of a Rolls, the Geely GE.

If and when the GE comes to market in China, it would be sold under Geely’s Englon luxury marque. By all accounts the limo is a shameless (if not slightly shorter in length) knock-off of the Rolls-Royce Phantom and might look more at home parked on Canal Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

From Autocar:

The 5.4 metre prototype, painted black and given pride of place on a raised plinth in the middle of Geely’s huge stand, makes obvious reference to the Rolls in the shape of its cabin, windows and down-sloping rear deck.

However, its nose, beneath which is mounted a 3.5 litre V6, is considerably shorter than the Rolls’s.

The ‘Grecian temple’ grille is close to being a Rolls copy, though, and it is topped by a figure which seems to draw much influence from Rolls-Royce’s traditional spirit of ecstasy, except that the figure slopes backwards.

The GE brings back memories of the 2007 Frankfurt auto show, where Shuanghuan, another Chinese automaker, presented an S.U.V. that was strikingly similar to the BMW X5. via