Dong Feng Shows A Pretty Decent-Looking Cybertruck Knockoff

The Beijing Auto Show is currently happening. I think I mentioned I was supposed to go but there was some holdup with getting a Chinese visa; in fact, I still don’t have my passport back! Still, somehow, despite my not being there, the various Chinese automotive companies seem to have decided what the hell, let’s have the Beijing Motor Show anyway, and I salute them for that. One interesting thing that has been noted at the show is a concept car from Dong Feng that does seem to be pretty dramatically and obviously inspired by the Tesla Cybertruck. We’ve definitely covered strange Cybertruckian knockoffs before, but this one seems significantly better than the one we saw before. I kind of like this one, in many ways better than the Cybertruck, I think?

So far, most of the attention here has come from some tweets about the concept vehicle, which, according to Dong Feng’s website, is simply called 2024 Concept Pickup Truck, though Dong Feng seems to have at least one picture of it on their site, which I’m showing you up top there.

Let’s look at it again, this time in context, and showing the integrated tent it has on the rear:

It’s pretty clearly Cybertruck-inspired in general shape and proportion, and overall tone and feel. But it’s also much more rounded off at the edges, lacking the Cybertruck’s sharp corners, and has more surface detailing and complexity, because it seems to have body panels made of stamped steel or aluminum instead of the Tesla’s flat stainless ones.

There seem to be little LEDs inset in the wheel arches “keystone” location, likely side marker lamps, which are cool, and it has cameras instead of mirrors, which I think is legal in China but not America. I can’t see how they tackled the windshield wiper solution here.

The truck bed sides have more of a notchback design, flowing into the cab with a sail-like shape instead of one large unbroken angle, like the Cybertruck. This feels like a better solution if you ever have to load anything into the bed from the sides, something that definitely happens when using a pickup truck.

There’s a full-width light bar in front, but that seems to be hiding a surprise that you can see in the tweeted pictures, and the main lighting seems to be down in the lower corners of the front end. The roof seems to have a light bar that could also be either a cargo carrier or pop-up roof tent or lidar unit or something. It’s not clear what exactly that upper pod is for up there, but I suspect it was included for a reason.

The tweets at least give a view of the rear, too:

Dong feng Cybertruck with no sharp edges 🤢🤮 pic.twitter.com/csNiqCoEIJ

— T ⚡️ (@TeslaSg) April 28, 2024

Also in these tweets you can see the secret of the light bar; look:

They’re displays! They look like fairly high-resolution monochrome displays, white for the front, red for the rear, where they form a full-width heckblende-style taillight unit. They even seem to be running a little animation on them, with the truck and some sound-wave-like hills, I bet set to music. Also, it’s interesting to note that vertical split there, suggesting the rear opens like a pair of doors instead of a traditional tailgate. Perhaps it does both?

The tent setup is interesting, where the tonneau cover seems to work like a massive hatch, and when lifted, the tent forms sides and it looks like an extended roof section folds out. I suspect the roof can be folded down to enclose the tent as the rear wall as well? It’s a pretty simple, straightforward design, however it works, though I wonder if it also means this tonneau does not slide out of the way like on a Tesla or Rivian.

Our Chinese car expert Tycho found more pics of the concept on Weibo, along with a bit more information, including that it uses Dongfeng’s existing skateboard EV platform and makes 1,305 horsepower, so, holy crap.

There’s a smallish frunk on the concept, which this source suggests is called E-Truck, and the rear doors open suicide-style:

The interior seems to be a bit less austere than Tesla’s truck, and really goes nuts with the huge, wraparound screens:

 

Overall, while it is definitely derivative, I don’t think it’s a bad take on the Cybertruck design. It does make me wonder if we’re about to enter an era where there will be a whole sub-market of Cybertruck-style knockoff-design pickup trucks, kind of like how there were iMac knockoffs in the late 1990s/early 2000s. You remember those, right?

I think Dong Feng is absolutely capable of coming up with original designs and concepts; after all, at the same show the brand reveal the M-Hunter, an electric (with optional ICE range extender) off-roader, something I’ve yet to see any manufacturer seriously plan too mass-produce, which Dong Feng is. Look at this beast:

I do, however, think the Cybertruck has garnered too much attention for companies to completely ignore, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more near-Cybertrucks ending up on the market – maybe more likely the Chinese market than American – soon. And I bet some will have real improvements to the Cybertruck design. It’ll be exciting to see!

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