Have there been any instances of a Chinese firm copying anything as large as a car part-for-part? I understand they make cars that look like Western cars, but under the hood they are completely different. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they came out with the Model S ‘Petrol Edition’.

I knew an engineer who used to work for a US company that made nuclear reactors. He had said that they sold a single reactor to someone in China, and only one. Several years later they found that they had made many identical copies of that model reactor, down to the size of the bolts.

A lot of the parts in every car, produced anywhere in the world, are shared with other models from other manufacturers. That's perfectly normal. Like e.g. "german", "french" or "american" cars, many "chinese" cars are made up mostly of german, french etc. parts. Well, german-engineered, french-engineered etc., beccause the parts are often produced relatively closely to the manufacturer's assembly plant. (Which is why BMW and it's american suppliers are biggest exporter of the fruits of automotive labor in the US.)

Chinese manufacturers are just more blatant in their copying of western designs. Western manufacturers tend to be way subtle about taking and reworking design cues. Though undeniably everyone will assimilate any popular design into their own design language.

I honestly don't think it will matter. Brand vanity goes a long way in China, and I bet Tesla will reliably command a premium over chinese knockoffs. Plus, the EV market in China is going to be so enormous that Tesla can take just a small piece of it and still be outrageously successful.

It's more the risk of China producing a good EV themselves and selling that in the rest of the world.

I imagine Elon knows this, maybe he thinks he can keep one step ahead for long enough to make it worthwhile.