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By Theodore Opara

THE Beetle, one of the world’s most popular cars that stunned after the Second World War may resurrect in China soon but not as a Volkswagen product. Ora brand of Great Wall Motors has come up with Electric Vehicle Concept of Volkswagen Beetle-like design but with four doors.

But it is also rumoured that Volkswagen is planning a battery-Electric, retro-styled Beetle model for its customers who cherish the attributes of the one-time German cheapest car.

The Chinese Beetle from Great Wall Motors would break many decades of the Beetle traditional concept of two doors as the car is coming with four doors with array of modern gadgets.

The China Beetle will come in two variants: Ballet Cat for female buyers Punk Cat for male buyers.

READ ALSO: Volkswagen demands damages from former executives linked to emissions scandal

Information available to Vanguard Motoring says that new ‘Beetle’ would be available as an electric sedan offering two battery sizes spaced pretty close together – 47.8 kWh and 59.1 kWh – the Ballet Cat will be shown in the metal at the Chengdu motor show at the end of this month, after which time we should get a good idea if Ora really intends to put it into production.

The rest of Ora’s lineup is equally whimsical but far more original, comprises a number of funky but not necessarily retro hatchbacks, some of which look like they should worry western automakers with a presence in China.

One issue that could perhaps remain unexamined is that the VW New Beetle was available in China only for a short period of time, and was by no means as big a hit there as it was in North America.

Additionally, the original Beetle was not sold in China in the post-war years, and though some examples had obviously migrated there over the decades as privately-owned diplomatic cars, Chinese car buyers of any age group are unlikely to have seen a classic Beetle outside of a museum or car show.

So just what the aesthetic of the old or new Beetle means to buyers in China is perhaps a far more open question.

It appears that there might be some controversy over the design patents according to a report. When it comes to the issue of design patents, the prospect of Volkswagen actually being able to obtain an injunction in a Chinese court is even less clear cut.

For starters, design patents are country-specific, so nominally Volkswagen had to have patented the design of the car before it could claim infringement.

That could be a problem because it may not have done so for the original Beetle but may have done so for the New Beetle.

Volkswagen and other automakers would have a much easier case with a modern vehicle that they had offered in China, had its design been emulated to some degree, than a decades-old design that was never officially offered by the automaker in China.

Volkswagen arrived in China only in the early 1980s, setting up production of the Santana in 1983, so whether all previous models including the original Beetle had been patented there is doubtful. 

Curiously enough, rumours of Volkswagen itself working on an Beetle-shaped electric model have been floating around for some time, since VW prioritised the Microbus-shaped ID. Buzz.

So Ora could actually roll out a Beetle-shaped electric model far sooner than VW itself, which is an interesting possibility to contemplate.

Design patent issues aside, the look of the exterior is… not bad really, if you’re not allergic to retro-styled cars to begin with.

The cabin here  does  seem a bit tall and bulbous in proportion to the rest of the bodywork, and the side windows are perhaps too large as well, but we figure Ora had exterior footprint targets to hit to arrive at this design.

We probably wouldn’t confuse it for a New Beetle from afar, were we to see one on the street, but we could see how other people might.

Vanguard News Nigeria