This kind if rebadging has been happening in many industries for a very long time. I bumped into this first, way back in the heyday of CD burners, deep diving on all the info and comparisons I could find. The high end Sony and some bargain brand were identical units apart from the case and badge. A real aha moment in my life.

With cars, there are often just superficial differences to create a much larger perceived value difference between an Audi or VW or a Lexus or Toyota (on some models).

I find this topic quite fascinating, as it relates to human psychology.

It's been an open secret for decades.

There are a lot of sources online, see for exapmle https://hip2save.com/tips/store-brands-made-by-name-brands/.

White labeling is frequently more profitable than selling a name brand product because you don't have to spend money on marketing, but due to the different level of quality in most store brand products, the suppliers generally prefer to leave their brand off the package and put only the legal minimum identifying info require. As a result, unless you actually work for one of the brands involved (the store or the supplier) it's extremely hard to know who the supplier is. But every store brand product you buy in a major U.S. retail chain is made by a manufacturer of a name brand product in the same space.

(On a similar note, most U.S. "craft" whiskey is made by the same distillery. White labeling for the win. https://www.whiskyadvocate.com/different-craft-whiskey-mgp-d...)

They might make it, but it’s generally a different, cheaper, product. You can easily see this with food - the ingredients and nutrition information will usually be different.