[otter]

Hello everyone! I am really happy to have found this forum. It is exciting to see new manufacturers gaining ground in the world market. This looks like a great place to track the progress of the major Chinese players.

I am from the United States. Not many Chinese brands here yet. More Chinese motorcycles than cars so far.

Great to see such a diverse user community. Anyone else here from the states?

I will be reading up on the board. Just wanted to say hi!

 

[Admin]

welcome to chinacarforums otter, since you are motorcycles fan, im sure Lifan interests you the most on this board?

 

[otter]

Thanks! Great site you have here.

Yes, defintely interested in motorcycles. I actually starting exploring motorcycle alternatives from the "big 4" (honda, kawasaki, suzuki, yamaha) when Hysoung started importing bikes to the US. They are South Korean. I expect the same progression of market share gain that Hyundai saw in the US. I'm sure some Chinese companies will do the same with bikes and cars. Sounds like most of you agree.:thumb:

Lifan dirtbikes interest me the most. My local dealer told me they use old Honda machinery. Not sure if this is true, never verified. When my son gets old enough I would like to get him one. Actually, I might have to buy it early and break it in for him. Gotta be sure it is safe

 

[dragin]

Welcome aboard otter

I think you are right about the Honda-Lifan connection. Lifan liked the Honda product so much that they named their bikes "Hongda". But as the below link shows Honda was not happy about that and took Lifan to court. The bikes are a good success though and now we are waiting to see how their cars do.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2004/12/24/310058.html


It's ironic because for centuries Japan copied Chinese intellectual property in art, architecture and culture, with wild abandon......and no one made them answer for it in court.

 

[otter]

Hey dragin, thanks for the link and information. I had heard of Hongda, did not know that was Lifan. Lots of ironies exist with this copying.

Zongshen looks to be another Chinese car company that makes motorcycles. I would post the url but I can't yet

One thing I notice about Chinese motorcycle companies is they are not afraid to badge thier bikes under another name not owned by them. Much different than Japanese or American companies. Do Chinese car companies do the same?

 

[dragin]

Not really...the frequency of lawsuits for technology piracy has been steadily increasing but I think the opposite is true for badges and logos. And as the global rule of law takes hold in the new China, we'll probably see the piracy problem fade away with time.

Of course China's technology muscle continues to grow stronger as I write this...

 

[DOS]

Do you know the Chinese character Hongda was written in? In Chinese the name may not actually be a trademark violation, making Lifan only guilty of producing Honda's without there permission. If the character's that are used to spell out Hongda are the ones I am thinking about, Hongda translates into great or grand, while the characters for Honda would be pounced BenTian in Chinese, unlike the cola brand CaCa which has no meaning. So form this previous assumption if there was an company that produced there own independent vehicles under the Hongda brand with an red H in a different script serving as there logo, technically they should only be as guilty of trademark violations as Hyundai, which as far as I am aware means modernity in Korean. Then again, Honda probably knew the difference in characters and Lifan probably knew that Hongda would look almost identical to Honda and still continued anyway.

 

[dragin]

I think you are right DOS. I also would guess it was 宏大 or "Grand", quite different from 本田, in both Chinese and Japanese.

But I suppose Honda and the court didn't see it that way since, in Roman letters (the most commonly used script in intn'l business), the spelling is so close and might lead to confusion.

Merely using the same letter in a logo is something else less serious I guess.

 

[Pakistan]

hi how are you all

 

[dragin]

欢迎 欢迎

Hi Pakistan, and welcome.....hope you enjoy the forum as much as I do....