Chinese carmaker readies bargain Bentley

We've already reported on Geely's cringe-worthy Rolls-Royce Phantom knock-off (more here), but now another Chinese carmaker is looking to get in on the let's-make-an-awful-version-of-a-premium-limo act.

What you're looking at here are some renderings of a proposed -- but as yet unnamed -- luxo(?) sedan that China's Huatai Automobile Group is busy working on.

A bit of background on Huatai -- the company was founded in 2000, when the two cities of Beijing and Huatai decided to initiate a co-operative venture to build badge-engineered South Korean vehicles in China.

A partnership was struck up with Hyundai/Kia, and among the vehicles the company subsequently produced were the Huatai Hyundai Santa Fe and the Huatai Hyundai Terracan (now defunct).

The company, which apparently has the capacity to build 200,000 vehicles annually, is symbolic of China's recent proliferation of carmakers, which are struggling to keep up with domestic demand.

How's this for a stat? Chinese manufacturers churned out 9.345 million automobiles in 2008, in the process surpassing the US as the world's second-largest carmaker (behind Japan). China is also the second largest car market in the world.

Getting back to the vehicle illustrated alongside, from the rear three-quarters it's an unbelievably blatant rip-off of a Bentley Continental Flying Spur, while up front the big mesh grille also closely mimics the latter.

No tech details are as yet available, so we can't tell you whether the mechanicals/underpinnings have been developed from scratch or sourced from elsewhere.

There's one thing we're quite convinced of, though -- the Bentley Boys must be turning over in their graves.

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