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I was told automakers have been ruining auto design and foisting gaping-nostril'd abominations on us for years due to the chinese market. Xiaomi, more Chinese

I was told automakers have been ruining auto design and foisting gaping-nostril'd abominations on us for years due to the chinese market. Xiaomi, more Chinese than Chinese, has released one of the most beautiful, nostril-less, vehicles in years. Is every automaker stupid?

lttlrck 3y ago
It looks like a Taycan to me, albeit with McLaren-esque headlights.
- saiya-jin 3y ago
  Car makers do it all the time. I have curves of our older BMW 5 series (f11) burned in my head. New VW passat came out, I saw it from up close and all subtle front and side curves are there, at same spots, done in >98% same way. These automakers are mega corporations now, not some passionate geeks working out of garages. They follow trends, curb any unique excellence in order to have uniform brand design. Chinese, they take western brands with just copy&paste, I havent seen much more. Everybosy should see Taycan in that design.
  - decafninja 3y ago
    There’s “taking inspiration from” and straight out copying. The line is admittedly blurry. But in this case, I kind of feel it leans a bit towards the latter. This isn’t the first instance Chinese automakers have copied designs. There have been outright shameless egregious clones of various BMWs, Porsches, etc. I don’t know what the legalities are, but those were never intended for sale outside of China IIRC.
  - cpursley 3y ago
    This “all the Chinese do is copy” meme needs to be put to rest. Every nation copies as first while they industrialize and learn the ropes. I’ve seen a lot more experimentation and unique designs in Chinese cars recently than European or American cars. Followed by the Koreans.
  - rad_gruchalski 3y ago
    No idea where do you find similarities between the f11 bmw and a passat except both having 4 doors and 4 wheels. They look completely different, especially the f11 with that beautiful round front and that round muscular rear line of the touring.
- yftsui 3y ago
  It does looks like Taycan, guess that's the directive engineers were given by the CEO. "We've engineered the SU7 to offer a level of driving performance that stands among the best in its class, including the Porsche Taycan Turbo." https://twitter.com/leijun/status/1739597487495925780 https://twitter.com/leijun/status/1739597487495925780
pie420 3y ago
Western Automakers already control their respective markets and are seeking to break into china, so they design towards chinese consumers. Chinese automakers already control their respective markets and are seeking to break into the western markets, and thus design towards western consumer tastes. You would think that "savy" HN visitors who know about A/B testing, market data driven decisions, etc. would know that if something looks ugly it's usually designed that way for a reason. But keep being smug while you ruin your website/app's color schemes and layout based on the same data driven corporate design strategies.
- mytailorisrich 3y ago
  As it happens, and although China requires (or used to require?) a joint-venture to produce in the country, Volkswagen used to pretty much own the Chinese car market.
mytailorisrich 3y ago
The new BYD saloon looks a bit similar, actually. It of course depends in personal taste but Chinese car makers seem to all be targeting global expansion and are all conscious of good design because they do make efforts in this area and none of their models is ugly.
vsskanth 3y ago
Model 3 doesn't have a grille either.
crowcroft 3y ago
Worth noting they haven't actually released anything yet.

lttlrck 3y ago

It looks like a Taycan to me, albeit with McLaren-esque headlights.

saiya-jin 3y ago
Car makers do it all the time. I have curves of our older BMW 5 series (f11) burned in my head. New VW passat came out, I saw it from up close and all subtle front and side curves are there, at same spots, done in >98% same way. These automakers are mega corporations now, not some passionate geeks working out of garages. They follow trends, curb any unique excellence in order to have uniform brand design. Chinese, they take western brands with just copy&paste, I havent seen much more. Everybosy should see Taycan in that design.
- decafninja 3y ago
  There’s “taking inspiration from” and straight out copying. The line is admittedly blurry. But in this case, I kind of feel it leans a bit towards the latter. This isn’t the first instance Chinese automakers have copied designs. There have been outright shameless egregious clones of various BMWs, Porsches, etc. I don’t know what the legalities are, but those were never intended for sale outside of China IIRC.
- cpursley 3y ago
  This “all the Chinese do is copy” meme needs to be put to rest. Every nation copies as first while they industrialize and learn the ropes. I’ve seen a lot more experimentation and unique designs in Chinese cars recently than European or American cars. Followed by the Koreans.
- rad_gruchalski 3y ago
  No idea where do you find similarities between the f11 bmw and a passat except both having 4 doors and 4 wheels. They look completely different, especially the f11 with that beautiful round front and that round muscular rear line of the touring.
yftsui 3y ago
It does looks like Taycan, guess that's the directive engineers were given by the CEO. "We've engineered the SU7 to offer a level of driving performance that stands among the best in its class, including the Porsche Taycan Turbo." https://twitter.com/leijun/status/1739597487495925780 https://twitter.com/leijun/status/1739597487495925780

pie420 3y ago

Western Automakers already control their respective markets and are seeking to break into china, so they design towards chinese consumers. Chinese automakers already control their respective markets and are seeking to break into the western markets, and thus design towards western consumer tastes. You would think that "savy" HN visitors who know about A/B testing, market data driven decisions, etc. would know that if something looks ugly it's usually designed that way for a reason. But keep being smug while you ruin your website/app's color schemes and layout based on the same data driven corporate design strategies.

mytailorisrich 3y ago
As it happens, and although China requires (or used to require?) a joint-venture to produce in the country, Volkswagen used to pretty much own the Chinese car market.

mytailorisrich 3y ago

The new BYD saloon looks a bit similar, actually. It of course depends in personal taste but Chinese car makers seem to all be targeting global expansion and are all conscious of good design because they do make efforts in this area and none of their models is ugly.

vsskanth 3y ago

Model 3 doesn't have a grille either.

crowcroft 3y ago

Worth noting they haven't actually released anything yet.