Lifan to produce Mini Cooper lookalike

GUANGZHOU -- Another lookalike car has appeared in China: the Lifan 320 which looks very like the Mini Cooper.

Chongqing Lifan Holdings Co. says it plans to start mass production of the small car around September.

The car will carry a 1.3-liter gasoline engine produced by Lifan.

The company will also mount a 1.1-liter engine in the car from the beginning of next year. Lifan is currently testing the newly developed 1.1-liter engine.

The car will carry a five-speed manual transmission.

The company declines to disclose the price of the car, but says it will be "less than 50,000 yuan" ($7,243).

The five-seat car, which debuted in late April at the Beijing auto show, is 3,745 mm long, 1,620 mm wide and 1,430 mm high.

The company says it fully considered intellectual property rights issues when designing the car, so it has no worries about being sued for violating the intellectual property of other companies.

The company also says it may export the lookalike car from China in the future.

Lifan is still a tiny player in China's auto industry. The company's major products are motorcycles and general-purpose engines. It started producing cars in late 2005 and has to date only launched the 520 sedan and its hatchback version. It sold about 30,000 units of the 520 in 2007.