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China's Songsan Motors used the Beijing Auto Show to introduce the SS Dolphin, which is a rather blatant copy of the 1958 Corvette C1.
While Chinese automakers have cloned almost everything, from MINI Coopers to Range Rovers, Western automakers have varying responses: some choose to just ignore it, while others take legal action.
Jaguar Land Rover is in the latter camp, having fought a long battle with Landwind over their clone of the Range Rover Evoque. The company eventually won that case, as the Beijing Chaoyang District Court ordered Landwind’s parent company to cease production and sales as well as pay compensation.
With this in mind, we reached out to GM to see what their response to the ‘dolphinganger’ was. Unsurprisingly, chickenshit Kevin Kelly, Chevrolet’s senior manager of car and crossover communications, said Songsan Motors didn’t seek the company’s permission for their knockoff Corvette.
However, Kelly claimed that “they are not using any of our trademarked names or logos, and the design is not identical to the C1.”
It’s hard to argue with the latter as the C1 is a thing of beauty, whereas the SS Dolphin looks like a weird imitation of the original. It is also 11.8 inches (300 mm) longer than the 1958 Corvette and features a unique interior with a digital instrument cluster, a ‘floating’ infotainment system and a flat-bottomed steering wheel.
The cabin isn’t the only unique feature, as the SS Dolphin has a plug-in hybrid powertrain that is reportedly sourced from BYD. It consists of a turbocharged 1.5-liter engine, an electric motor and a 16 kWh battery pack that enables the car to travel 56-62 miles (90-100 km) on electricity alone and also offers decent performance, with the dash to 62 mph (100 km/h) taking just 4.9 seconds.
Now
If images are any indication, it is about to get a four-door sedan variant.
The SS Dolphin was unveiled at last year’s Beijing Auto Show and is actually based around the BYD Qin Pro Sedan. It will also be built by BYD and these patent images preview the forthcoming four-door model.
It’s not yet known what this model will be called but it retains a near-identical design to the two-door. The wheelbase doesn’t appear to have changed and instead, the cabin has been pushed closer to the front axle and the front doors have been shrunk, allowing for a small set of rear doors to be fitted. The front and rear fascias of the four-door model appear almost identical to the two-door, although the headlights and taillights have been slightly updated.
These patents also depict it with black front and rear bumper add-ons whereas the two-door has chrome bumpers, although we should wait for the production model as that might be just for the patent sketches.
One particularly interesting image shows the car from directly above and splits in the roof might suggest that it could be removed in four individual parts, transforming the car into a four-door, four-seat Targa (though, once again, we can’t be certain until we see the production model).
In all likelihood, the four-door model will have the same powertrain as the two-door. That will mean a turbocharged 1.5-liter that works alongside an electric motor and a 16 kWh battery pack. The convertible SS Dolphin two-door can travel up to 62 miles (100 km) on electric power and a similar figure can be expected with the sedan.
While Chinese automakers have cloned almost everything, from MINI Coopers to Range Rovers, Western automakers have varying responses: some choose to just ignore it, while others take legal action.
Jaguar Land Rover is in the latter camp, having fought a long battle with Landwind over their clone of the Range Rover Evoque. The company eventually won that case, as the Beijing Chaoyang District Court ordered Landwind’s parent company to cease production and sales as well as pay compensation.
With this in mind, we reached out to GM to see what their response to the ‘dolphinganger’ was. Unsurprisingly, chickenshit Kevin Kelly, Chevrolet’s senior manager of car and crossover communications, said Songsan Motors didn’t seek the company’s permission for their knockoff Corvette.
However, Kelly claimed that “they are not using any of our trademarked names or logos, and the design is not identical to the C1.”
It’s hard to argue with the latter as the C1 is a thing of beauty, whereas the SS Dolphin looks like a weird imitation of the original. It is also 11.8 inches (300 mm) longer than the 1958 Corvette and features a unique interior with a digital instrument cluster, a ‘floating’ infotainment system and a flat-bottomed steering wheel.
The cabin isn’t the only unique feature, as the SS Dolphin has a plug-in hybrid powertrain that is reportedly sourced from BYD. It consists of a turbocharged 1.5-liter engine, an electric motor and a 16 kWh battery pack that enables the car to travel 56-62 miles (90-100 km) on electricity alone and also offers decent performance, with the dash to 62 mph (100 km/h) taking just 4.9 seconds.
Now
If images are any indication, it is about to get a four-door sedan variant.
The SS Dolphin was unveiled at last year’s Beijing Auto Show and is actually based around the BYD Qin Pro Sedan. It will also be built by BYD and these patent images preview the forthcoming four-door model.
It’s not yet known what this model will be called but it retains a near-identical design to the two-door. The wheelbase doesn’t appear to have changed and instead, the cabin has been pushed closer to the front axle and the front doors have been shrunk, allowing for a small set of rear doors to be fitted. The front and rear fascias of the four-door model appear almost identical to the two-door, although the headlights and taillights have been slightly updated.
These patents also depict it with black front and rear bumper add-ons whereas the two-door has chrome bumpers, although we should wait for the production model as that might be just for the patent sketches.
One particularly interesting image shows the car from directly above and splits in the roof might suggest that it could be removed in four individual parts, transforming the car into a four-door, four-seat Targa (though, once again, we can’t be certain until we see the production model).
In all likelihood, the four-door model will have the same powertrain as the two-door. That will mean a turbocharged 1.5-liter that works alongside an electric motor and a 16 kWh battery pack. The convertible SS Dolphin two-door can travel up to 62 miles (100 km) on electric power and a similar figure can be expected with the sedan.
