Because of the importance of the automobile industry to the national economy, it has always been regarded as a core secret by countries and giants. In addition to the traditional automobile powers, whether Japan, ranked second in the world, or South Korea, a rising star in the past two years, the automobile industry was poor when it first started. How to level a tall building? Everyone used reverse engineering.
Reverse engineering refers to the process of measuring an object or model by certain measuring means and reconstructing the physical model, so as to realize product design and manufacturing. Different from the traditional drawing-manufacturing-physical process, reverse engineering is to have physical objects first, then collect data through various surveying and mapping means, and then manufacture them.
In the era when Akio Toyoda started his business, although there was no computer-aided design, the principle was the same. Even now, it is one of the necessary steps in commercial warfare to buy back competitors' products and disassemble them.
This primitive reverse engineering has helped Toyota and Hyundai enter the room, but the future depends on them. Although it lasted for 30 years from 1950s to the end of 1970s, Japanese automobile factories always borrowed design elements from the United States and Europe. But they made a "Japanese" improvement. For example, in appearance, they have changed according to the Japanese body shape. To some extent, this is progress. Japanese and Koreans digested and mastered the core automobile technology through reverse engineering, and created the automobile kingdom of Japan and South Korea on this basis. Similarly, although the development of independent brands in China is not long, it has also made progress in this process.
Yin, CEO of Chery, admitted that Tiggo was "doing bad things for the last time". This year's Shanghai Auto Show exhibited the real "Made in Chery", and it is difficult to find the shadow of other famous cars. The progress of Shuanghuan from the "super-change" of Bao SRV to the "CEO who learns from others" is obvious; BYD's F6 is more mature after F3 and looks like a Corolla.
For independent brands, if imitating cars will make people think of "this is the prototype", it is also overestimating the effect of imitation. First of all, the logo of the car can be seen at a glance as another brand and another product. And for some products with the same design elements, people will not take it as original. An auspicious pride, even if the front face looks like a Mercedes-Benz, people will not regard it as a Mercedes-Benz. Third, even if the imitation is more similar, the price is enough to separate the imitator from the original place: for example, although the noble SRV and Honda CRV are similar in appearance, they are quite different in details, workmanship and even visual coordination. And for consumers, customers who have the ability to consume CRV rarely choose Noble because it is similar to CRV.
It is precisely because of this that pure imitation is difficult to surpass originality, such as 1988 Lexus imitating Mercedes-Benz. What really makes it a luxury car is its unique design after getting rid of the influence of Mercedes-Benz. Therefore, the ultimate goal of imitation is innovation, just as Qian Zhongshu said, "Imitation introduces creation, and artistry will cultivate experts' appreciation. Many real things in the world begin with imitation."