Billion-Dollar Baby - Chinese EV Startup Uses Photoshopped Images of Mitsubishi Outlander for Promotion Photos

A billion dollar electric vehicle startup from China has been accused of using photoshopped production car images for their concept cars.

WM Motors, a new electric vehicle startup, recently gained widespread press in Bloomberg, Fortune and Forbes. However, it was Electrek that picked up on the pixelated fakery.

“It appears that one of the first concepts of this billion-dollar EV startup is simply photoshopped images based on promotional pictures of the 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander.”

Electrek further reports, “The company announced partnerships with high-profile companies like telecom giant China Unicom and hardware firm Huawei and earlier this month, it also announced that it was breaking ground at its factory in Suzhou, China, where it plans to manufacture as many as 50,000 cars in 2018.”

This is embarrassing, to say the least, for such a high-profile company. Concept cars copy design cues from other brands all the time, but this poorly photoshopped image is nothing more than a blatant copy of Mitsubishi’s big crossover. You’d think a billion dollars of investment in WM Motors would buy at least some sort of original design or a better photoshop.

Some of the other images released by WM Motors are photoshopped more drastically, but it’s very obvious the Outlander image was used as a base when placed side by side.

WM Motors has grand ambitions. WM stands for Weltmeister, which translates to World Champion in German. In a recent rambling press release, the president stated WM Motors would follow the business model of Tesla and avoid the mistakes of Fisker, Coda and Wheego.

He also mentioned copying numerous successful multinational corporations including Apple, Nike, and Haier.

He concluded by stating, “Great changes are to sweep across [the] global vehicle and manufacturing industry in the coming three to five years. And this time, China will lead the race and champion the world!” Appropriately, the co-founder’s name is Napoleon.

It’s hard to take WM Motors seriously. The promises sound great, but there’s no substance yet to go with the hype. History is littered with failed startups, and electric vehicle startups are no exception. Unfortunately, the company looks more poised to become the next Fisker than the next Tesla.