SM and Nissans would unsurprisingly look similar.
The company in Korea is 르노삼성자동차
르노 == renault (르노삼성자동차 CEO is pink, not yellow)
and there is the renault-nissan alliance (renault has a 44.4% stake in nissan and nissan has ownership of 15% of renault) with the famous carlos ghosn at the helm

SomeguyinKorea:
hate is, I guess, OK
as long as it is informed

Actually the Korean train is a copy of the French TGV, of course don’t tell the Koreans that because to the Koreans it has been designed and built with 100% Korean technology.

This, despite my natural tendency to point out Korea’s quirks and misbehaviours, is factually untrue. A copy would mean they built a, say, TGB instead of TGV, like they make Luis Bittong and would like us to belive it’s Louis Vuitton. Not so here. It’s not a copy, it’s a hand-me-down [end of 20th Century tech] they paid dearly for. Every cent of it. And let’s not forget the stint in prison Mrs Cariou, the [Korean] wife of the then general manager of Alstom Korea, did for handing over the bribe[s]. This affair is filthy at every corner, and, as another commentor said, exemplary in what is fubared in Korea.

The latest TGV are very nice, capable of [almost] flying at 300 MILES per hour [although service on Marseille, the fastest line, is "only" around 200 mph]. The line to where I live is 2/3 high-speed only, and with the head start we had on Korea, this line won’t be completed until 2010…

I did here the Chinese chose the Japanese as well, unsure of the exact model. Ironicaly I saw the first engines being shipped on NHK since I was in Japan they were loaded on the boat. It was about the same time as I took the above pictures.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.....terior.jpg

Speaking of bullet trains of the orient, China last year introduced their own bullet train, though I’m not sure if it is actually in service yet. I heard some rumour about the shinkansen being chosen instead of the domestic because the technology behind the domestic model wasn’t mature yet. Not sure if it’s true or not. Anyways its basic design is quite similar to the 800 series with a blend of the 700 series “bill”.

http://www.davidwei.com/chinastar/image05.jpg

That’s just how I roll.

And still some people are complaining that it is too expensive!!!

Not to start tossing stereotypes around, but Koreans are some of the biggest skinflints I’ve ever met. Fifty bucks to travel a few hundred kilometers in a few hours seems like a good price to me.

Well the difference is the KTX is licensed (paid fair and square) technology through tech transfer agreement, while Chinese companies copying Hyundai cars are not.