The blatant copying of the Tundra’s design language is one thing, but to slap it on whatever that thing is…it’s unforgivable.
China is the king of knockoffs and nowhere is that more blatantly obvious than some of the cars they produce.
An interesting off-shoot of this knockoff car culture is when smaller, less ambitious niche automakers need design inspiration for their own models, don’t want to spend any money or time on design, and crib heavily from anything they can shoehorn onto their own cars.
Case in point, the Sino Vehicle Hub Tundaa (or Tundar) mini pickup truck, a mini-truck heavily inspired by the all new 2023 Toyota Tundra full-size pickup.
I say Tundaa and Tundar because, as their posts say here and here, they don’t specify which is the correct one. For the rest of this blog post, it shall be known as the Tundaa.
Check out this….thing below.
And, here’s a side-by-side with the real thing.
According to SVH’s “Who we are?” page,
“SINO Vehicle Hub Co., Ltd. is a start up E-commerce platform specialized in sourcing up the suitable new and used vehicles…”
How I read this SVH Tundaa even being made is SVH’s found success connecting China’s niche automakers with global clients looking to buy lots of new and used cars.
Their lineup, which the Tundaa is a part of, is, I presume, their “store brand” of vehicles.
Back to this Tundaa, it’s looks like they’ve repurposed another make and model mini truck, designed a new front and rear ala Toyota Tundra, slapped on their own branding to it, and are selling it as a totally new product.
The funniest part is SVH didn’t even bother to take out Tundra embossed on the back of the bed.
Although they list the engine as a Isuzu 1.0L three cylinder gas engine, as one commenter pointed out, Isuzu never made that small of a gas engine.
The Chinese characters on the valve cover translate to Suzuki Technology and, sure enough, after a bit of Googling, the valve cover looks a lot like the F10A one found under the hood of a second gen Suzuki Samurai.
Since Suzuki doesn’t make this engine anymore, it’s safe to assume the engine, also, is a copy.
If they’ve faithfully reproduced the Samurai engine, we’re looking at about 40 HP and 45 lb-ft of power here.
Supposedly that’s good enough to reach their listed top speed of 100 KMH (or 62 MPH.)
And if you’re looking for more power, according to SVH’s reply, “We can install engine with 1.5L”
Power is routed through a 5-speed manual with, if the caption is to be believed, an optional automatic.
Pricing is not listed but, according to inquires in the comments, you can get one of these SVH Tundaa’s shipped to your closest port for around $6,000-$6,500.
The comments are straight ripping this lazy design work.
“Looks like a child drew a Tundra,” Greg Patte commented.
“I would like to see the crash test on that bad boy,” Todd Yanagihara says.
As this mini-truck clearly can’t be legally registered, it looks like the type of vehicle you’d buy for private property only.
This would be great for private security, driving around large farms, for just around the neighborhood in those not-so-busy suburban areas, or for large colleges.
What I would give to drive this around some Toyota design centers in the United States or Japan just for the lols.
If you’re interested in a Tundaa for yourself or your business, head over to their website to get in touch.
