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At the Shanghai Auto Show in April, Great Wall Ouler unveiled a new electric model, the Euler punk Cat, which looks like the Volkswagen Beetle and attracted a lot of attention and skepticism.

According to foreign media reports, Great Wall Motor has submitted an application for a patent for the European punk cat design to the European Patent Office and has been approved. RCD grants the holder "exclusive rights in all current and future member states of the European Union". The design patent is valid for 5 years, can be renewed for up to 25 years, and can be renewed up to five years each time. Great Wall's patent design will expire in June 2026.

According to the patented designs published online, one of them bears a high resemblance to the punk cat unveiled at the Shanghai auto show. In addition, the shape of the vehicle wheels in the design drawings are similar to those of the punk cats unveiled at the auto show. The shape of the second design is more retro, with a traditional bumper on the front face and tail, but the shape of the headlights has changed slightly, and the design of the wheels has become simpler, with a small tail wing added to the rear of the car. similar to the 2017 Beetle.

Some netizens said: it can not be said to be somewhat similar, at best it can only be regarded as exactly the same. If Volkswagen resurrects the Beetle, it does not belong to the appearance of infringement. In fact, the Beatles are also plagiarized, plagiarized too. It can only be said to be the reincarnation of design. At the same time, some netizens said that the styling design of cars in the 1960s and 1970s was actually a little similar to that of punk cats, not only the Beetle, but also many other car designs that were similar to the Beetle. It's hard to say that the punk cat copied the Beatles.

The Beetle was the first model launched by Volkswagen. With its compact appearance, economy and durability, the Beetle became the best-selling model in Europe at that time and quickly became popular with car owners all over the world. Volkswagen Beetle sales have been declining year by year since 2014, with global sales of 91000 vehicles in 2014 and only 64000 in 2015, while sales in 2016 fell by half to 25000. The Beatles have also become one of Volkswagen's lowest-selling models. On July 10, 2019, with the last Beetle off the line at the Puebla plant in Mexico, it also marked the official suspension of production of the 81-year-old Beetle after three generations of design. Although the suspension of production of the Beetle is regrettable, there is a reason. When the product of a car model weakens and becomes a feeling, it may not be far from the end of production.

At the 19th Shanghai Auto Show, Great Wall Euler unveiled a brand new electric car and named it "punk Cat" and positioned it as a compact car. Judging from the appearance of the exhibition car, the design style of the Euler punk cat is different from that of the current models on sale, and the retro design style is quite similar to the original Volkswagen Beetle. The overall shape of the new car is very round, the headlight group uses an oval shape, double-row door design and two-color body, the front and rear wing plate is wide out of the body, forming a wide body effect. At the rear of the body, the two silver strips extending to the rear of the car are very eye-catching, and the rear headlamp group also uses an oval shape, which makes the whole vehicle design very "old-fashioned".

The interior of the punk cat also uses a "retro" design technique, such as the air outlet, the central control knob, the three-frame steering wheel, the window control area and even the throttle pedal, etc., and the full liquid crystal dashboard adopts the prototype design. the central control screen uses a suspended design, coupled with red and green color matching appears very retro. In terms of power, pure electric drive will continue to be used, and the specific parameters have not yet been announced.

It is worth mentioning that Great Wall has hired a lot of designers from Europe in recent years, among which Euler brand model design is presided over by former Porsche designer Almon Delta. The designer of the Beatles is Ferdinand Porsche, the founder of the famous Porsche. However, according to the relevant data, the Volkswagen Beetle body is also built on the basis of "drawing lessons from" the appearance of Taituo. In the 1930s, the Czech company Tetra was the first carmaker to apply fish-shaped bodies to small cars. Taituo further bowed the big dome of the fish-shaped body to create a brand-new national-class car-Taituola T97.

As early as 1961, Tetra filed a tort suit against German Volkswagen, and the court finally ruled that the Beatles plagiarized the T97 design, and Volkswagen had to pay a compensation of DM 3 million to Tatola.

In any case, from a design point of view, the Beetle does shine in front of people's eyes, coupled with its retro style is also loved by many nostalgic users, as to whether the Euler punk cat infringes on the patent of the public, this is still an open question.

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