Law & Justice
Bailiffs Seize BYD Records Ahead of JLR Court Battle Over Defender‑Like SUV
Bailiffs acting for Jaguar Land Rover raided the Dutch offices of Chinese carmaker BYD in Schiedam and Hoofddorp in August, according to the Sunday Times. The raid was carried out before a court case in The Hague this week that will decide whether BYD’s Ti7 SUV infringes the intellectual property of the Land Rover Defender. Motoring experts have compared BYD’s seven‑seat plug‑in hybrid SUV to the Defender since it went on sale in China in September last year. The vehicle, which the BBC’s Top Gear magazine called the “Chinese Defender clone”, is scheduled to launch in the UK in January at a price of £47,995, more than £20,000 cheaper than the Defender. BYD describes the Ti7 as having an “unapologetically boxy profile” that delivers an imposing, chunky design while maintaining a contemporary look. The Defender 110, a seven‑seat model, starts from £68,465 and is one of the country’s best‑selling cars. JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors, sold 29,500 Defenders to retail customers between July and September this year, compared with 25,370 a year earlier. JLR suspected that BYD had reverse‑engineered some technology that could be used in the Ti7, and wanted to secure the digital records before they could be destroyed. Both companies declined to comment on the ongoing legal proceedings. This dispute is not the first time JLR has pursued a Chinese company over copycat allegations; it won a case in 2019 that stopped Jiangling Motor Corporation from selling a similar vehicle. In other instances JLR has taken a collaborative approach, such as a 2012 joint venture with Chery that later included licensing its discontinued Freelander brand. Chery’s Jaecoo model, not part of the joint venture, has been called the Temu Range Rover because of its similarities to the JLR vehicle after years of collaboration. The Jaecoo costs £10,000 less than JLR’s Range Rover and was the best‑selling car in the UK in October, with 10,813 registrations, increasing its market share from 2.07% to 4.30%, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders. JLR’s sales of the Range Rover fell to 43,300 in the third quarter of this year, from 47,196 cars sold in the same months last year.