Unbelievable: China’s Great Wall Motors Patents Toyota Ractis Clone Design in Europe!

Oh the irony; China’s Great Wall Motors whose GWPeri minicar was recently banned from Europe because its appearance was ruled to be too similar to that of the Fiat Panda, has successfully managed to patent the design of the Feel Free minivan at the European Patent Office! Now, the reason that we’re surprised is that Great Wall Motor’s Feel Free minivan that was shown in pre-production form earlier this year at the Beijing Show is essentially a generic copy of the Toyota Ractis, a subcompact minivan that’s based on the Yaris minicar and sold in Japan.

Don’t believe us? Then just check the photo album after the jump. As with the GWPeri, the Chinese automaker’s design team (…) simply made a few alterations to the front and rear end styling of the Ractis and presto; the all new Feel Free (to copy) minivan. We can’t even begin to imagine how awkward the Toyota folks must feel after this development… -Continued