Now that it has entered the ranks of official vehicle purchases, can we look at Zotye in a different light?

Nowadays, in the entertainment industry, in addition to celebrities, there is also a new force called Internet celebrities. News about them will also dominate the headlines of entertainment news. With a huge fan base, the influence of some Internet celebrities is even comparable to that of big-name celebrities. Speaking of Internet celebrities in the automotive industry, it seems that Zotye is second and no one dares to claim to be first. Recently, Zotye Automobile broke another big news: the Public Security Bureau of Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province, purchased a large number of Zotye T700s as police cars.

What happened to the promise of “fulfilling the Chinese people’s dream of having luxury cars”?

When Zotye Auto was first established, the models it launched were very similar in design to those of Volkswagen and Audi. The SR9 had its logo replaced with Porsche's, making it almost exactly the same as the Macan. At the 2017 Shanghai Auto Show, Porsche executives mistook the Zotye SR9 for its own Macan and accidentally walked into the Zotye booth.

It is said that the logo of Zotye SR9 is very easy to handle and can be removed by scratching it. Is this a hint that we have to change the logo after buying Zotye SR9? In addition, in the promotional advertisement of Zotye SR9, it was written like this: I heard that you want to drive a Porsche, so I came. Some dealers even directly called SR9 "Porsche Tai" in the advertisement.

Since the models imitated are luxury brands like Audi and Volkswagen, many netizens joked that whether they can drive a luxury car in this life depends on Zotye. Zotye's goal is to make the luxury car dream come true for Chinese people. Moreover, if you look closely, most of Zotye's models imitate Volkswagen's models. Volkswagen's slogan is "The way of cars, for the public", while Zotye's slogan is "For the public", which is more outstanding. It seems that Zotye is targeting Volkswagen.

However, in Zotye's latest models, such as the T700, the traces of imitation have begun to weaken, and many original elements have been added. Although they are not designed by famous designers, they are much better than the previous copycats. Zotye has started to create originality. Will we still see cars like the Porsche Tai, Lamborghini Tai, and Bugatti in the future?

Can we take a new look at Zotye?

In fact, the topic of copycat cars can involve many car companies, not just domestic brands, but even auto giants like Toyota have a history of imitation. When a new car brand is first established, it generally does not have much money, so it has to quickly increase its popularity by imitating the appearance of the best-selling models at the moment. After occupying the market and achieving a certain sales volume, it can work hard on the appearance design and make some family designs of its own, and finally get on the right track.

Judging from the new Zotye T700, Zotye seems to be gradually giving up imitation and pursuing originality, and wants to throw away the hat of copycat cars. And from Zotye's recent series of activities, it can be seen that Zotye is still ambitious. (Official account: x91play) Now Zotye T700 has become a police car, which is enough to show Zotye's progress in recent years. The public security organs must be very cautious in choosing public cars. First of all, they must have good safety and performance, so that they can deal with those vicious criminals, and they must also be acceptable in terms of face. It seems that Zotye T700 meets these conditions.

In addition, among the private sector, Zotye T700 has sold 58,961 units in the seven months since it was launched on May 31, 2017, with an average monthly sales of more than 8,000 units, which is enough to show that consumers recognize Zotye. At this time, let's look at the copycat cars such as Zotye SR9, whose average monthly sales are less than 3,000 units. It seems that the eyes of the majority of consumers are also sharp. However, there are also some people who take shortcuts and buy a copycat car and replace it with a standard X. Fortunately, everyone knows more and more about cars, and there are fewer and fewer such people.

Some people say that if Bill Gates were Chinese, he would have starved to death long ago, because the copyright issues in China are not like those in foreign countries, and the same is true for car design. Honda sued Shuanghuan and lost 15 million yuan in compensation, and Land Rover sued Landwind, and both parties were fined 20 times, and the patents of both parties were invalid. Porsche also said it would sue Zotye before, but it has not made any move so far. It is estimated that after seeing the endings of Honda and Land Rover, it dares not to act rashly.

After the Zotye T700 was launched on the market, we can indeed look at Zotye in a different light. However, for copycat cars, their existence itself is unhealthy. If such cars can still maintain high sales, it will be very detrimental to the development of the Chinese auto market. As for those car brands that have just started, it is understandable to learn from others in terms of appearance design, but if they continue to learn from others in this way, they are doomed to have no future.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.