China’s Great Wall Cheekily Patents Electric Beetle Rip-Off In VW’s Back Yard

Great Wall Motor’s ORA Punk Cat was one of the most memorable stars of April’s Shanhgai Auto Show, and not only because it was clearly named following a celebratory pre-show bender involving a dozen bottles of Baijiu.

No, it was the retro-EV’s shameless cribbing of a classic design, namely the legendary Beetle, which had us captivated. Immediately after the show we asked Volkswagen if it was concerned about the similarities, and were told in very Germanic English: “We check this matter with regard to any violations of utility model or design rights of Volkswagen AG and reserve the right to take any necessary legal steps.”

Well, Volkswagen might be one step nearer to taking those legal steps following Carscoops’ discovery that ORA’s mother company Great Wall has patented two five-door Beetle-like designs. And it’s not just done it in China, but in Europe, registering them with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EU IPO).

Related: VW Lawyers Looking Into Great Wall’s ORA Electric Beetle Rip-Off From Shanghai Auto Show

One of the cars appears to be the Punk Cat from the Shanghai show. It’s a five-door Beetle-shaped car with circular headlamps set into sloping fenders and a series of horizontal slats just ahead of each front door, possibly covering charging ports. It even has the same wheels as the show car.

The second design seems to be both cartoonier and more retro. The 1960s-style overriders and the classic ‘towel-rail’ bar between them are larger, and the headlamps are shaped likes slices of toast, giving the car a real face. The wheels are plainer, the rear door appears to cut into the fender, and the nose has more of pronounced bulge, like the 1970s versions of the original Bug. There’s also a ducktail spoiler below the rear window.

Although the designs appear at first glance to be two variations of the same car, when viewed from the front and rear, there are clear differences. The Shanghai car has wider fenders, a more rounded roof, and the rear hatch cutout is narrower and squarer. But the big takeaway for us is that both Chinese designs look more like an original Beetle than even VW’s own modern, water-cooled Beetles ever did.

According to documents available online, Great Wall submitted two Registered Community Design (RCD) applications on June 3, 2021, which were then approved on June 11. An RCD grants the holder “exclusive rights in all current and future Member States of the European Union”. It is valid for five years and can be renewed for a maximum of 25 years, five years at a time. Great Wall’s RCDs expire in June 2026.

Lower down the page on the documents for both cars is a section headed ‘Designers’ and crediting the people involved in the creative process. It lists 11 Chinese names in both cases – and yes, but somehow Ferdinand Porsche’s name is nowhere in sight…

Elsewhere on the website the IPO explains how design protection works in the EU for budding creators:

“Let’s imagine you have created a new design. You want to commercialize and distribute this product in the European Union market, but are afraid others will reap the benefits of your newly drafted design. Therefore you want to protect it.”

We’d be surprised if VW didn’t want to protect its designs, too, even if it did opt to kill its own Beetle off in 2019 and has claimed it’s not interested in bringing it back as an EV. Sure, the ORA was a five-door, and battery-powered, two things the Beetle never was (though probably should have been if VW was serious about its survival). But the Punk Cat isn’t a car inspired by the Beetle in the way the original Mazda Miata tipped a hat to the original Lotus Elan. It is a blatant lift. We have a feeling we haven’t heard the last of this story.

Correction: A previous version of this story erroneously misnamed the Chinese automaker as the ORA Punk is made by Great Wall Motors. We deeply apologize for the confusion and mistake.