The Chinese car market is an interesting one, not least because every now and then very remarkable models appear. The white-and-yellow creation on these patent drawings that we have surfaced from the database of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) certainly manages to attract our attention.
Some Chinese manufacturers do not mind being heavily inspired by existing cars for the design of their models. The Lightning Cat from Ora, clearly inspired by the Volkswagen Beetle, is a well-known recent example of this. Recently AutoWeek was able to show you a minuscule Mini Countryman of Chinese manufacture and this time we have a cheerful trolley from Changhe on offer.
Changhe is a Chinese manufacturer that, among other things, had a partnership with Suzuki. It sold – neatly licensed – its own version of the Suzuki Wagon R+ and nowadays Changhe has a handful of SUVs and MPVs on its menu. One of those SUVs is the Q7, a car with a front that resembles previous generations of Land Rover Range Rover and Discovery (photo 7) With the white-and-yellow creation of the brand that we can show you today, Changhe goes one step further.
Changhe
It is impossible to call the small electrically powered city car in these drawings an exact copy of the Iso/BMW Isetta, but it seems obvious that at least one photo of that roguish city rascal hung in the Changhe design studio. When viewed from the side, Changhe’s version looks like the somewhat flawed brother of the well-known Isetta. For example, there is a remarkable bulge in the front and only door and the rear does not slope in the same way as with the original. Changhe gives its little newcomer high-placed round headlights, round taillights and a glass roof. There is no further information about the striking newcomer of Changhe for the time being.
Changhe is certainly not the only manufacturer who has been inspired by the Isetta. For example, the Swiss Micro Mobility Systems has the Microlino and Artega will also produce an EV inspired by the Isetta. In the past, the Chinese manufacturer Eagle also had an Isetta look-a-like with four conventional doors in the range with the EG6330K (photo 8).