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Porsche Macan Chinese Clone Looks like a Case of Plastic Surgery Gone Wrong

In most cases, a designer's mood board is filled with all sorts of things that gave them the inspiration to come up with the final form of the product. You'll find pictures of objects, people, buildings or even nature - hell, it could even be the shape the cereals created in the milk bowl that morning, if that's what guided their hand while drawing whatever it was they were drawing.
Zotye SR8 Porsche Macan clone 9 photos
Photo: CarNewsChina
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In the case of the Chinese SUV Zotye SR8, it is a lot simpler than that: all you'll ever see on that board (if it existed, of course) were pictures of the Porsche Macan. Yup, the Chinese are back at it again copying successful designs and shamelessly turning them into a lot more accessible cars. One of the most recent victims appears to be the Macan, the smaller of the two luxury SUVs currently on offer from Porsche.

The Zotye SR8 has been getting ready for its debut for more than a year, even though, if you've been tracking its progress, you probably know it by its older name, the T700. Despite the new title, nothing significant has changed, the Chinese version continuing to look like the Macan twin that got separated at birth and grew up in the country, plowing fields and milking cows. The similarity is striking, but if you were to take one to a soiree, you'd make your choice faster than any Tesla will ever reach 60 mph.

The Zotye SR8 looks more like a mix between the Macan and the pre-facelift version of the Cayenne, the latter being most obvious in the shape of the headlights. The SR8 is also slightly larger than the Porsche, but that's OK because it didn't pack any of the source's sportiveness. CarNewsChina reports the Chinese version comes equipped with a 2.0-liter turbo engine developing 190 hp and 250 Nm (184 lb-ft) that get transferred through a five-speed manual or a six-speed dual-clutch automatic.

But if you thought the exterior was a blatant copy, wait until you get a look at the dashboard. On the outside, it appears as though the copiers tried to make it look like they weren't just pressing ctrl+c/ctrl+v, but also intervening a bit before the final ctrl+s. The interior, however, and by that we mean the center console, is 100 percent Macan. The Zotye T700 used more elements from the larger Cayenne, but the SR8 reverted to being an exact replica of the Macan.

Of course, the materials used are going to be three to four classes lower than what you can find in the Macan, but that's also something reflected by the vehicle's price. The SR8 is expected to kick off at the equivalent of around $20,000, while the Macan is more than four times that. And that's before you add the very expensive Porsche extras, which the Zotye SR8 most definitely lacks.

We think that if you took one of these vehicles and stuck a Porsche badge on it, you'd get away with it in 90 percent of the cases. Some people will look twice, squint and scratch their heads feeling something was wrong, but they wouldn't be able to bet on it. The Zotye SR8 is making its debut at the Beijing Auto Show this month and should be available starting the second half of the year. Thankfully, only in China.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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