BYD Offices Raided as JLR Accuses It of Copying the Defender

By Reputation

We’ve come to accept that Chinese car manufacturers are now just as good as established brands. However, many years ago, people’s views on Chinese-made cars were very different and mostly negative. The first was obviously the lack of quality and refinement; most early cars suffered from many quality-control issues, but the biggest talking point was design.

In the early days of Chinese car making, you got two design languages: either plain and simple, or downright copied from another brand. It wasn’t just looks that were copied; in some cases, technology and powertrains were also replicated. Over the years, the latter copycat playbook has dwindled, but it seems fresh allegations suggest some major manufacturers still do it.

BYD Copies Land Rover?

Car News China reported that court-appointed officers raided two of BYD’s Dutch offices. The raid apparently took place this August and resulted from a legal dispute between BYD and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). The British carmaker alleges that BYD’s Ti7 SUV violates copyrights pertaining to the design of the Land Rover Defender. In other words, JLR is accusing BYD of copying it. It was reported that during the raid, officers got digital records from BYD’s offices located in Schiedam and Hoofddorp.

According to the report, JLR thinks that BYD dismantled a Defender and reverse-engineered some of the technology to be put into the Ti7. The preliminary hearing is set for November 11 in The Hague. In response, BYD’s lawyers challenged the seizure of the files and called it a “fishing expedition.” As expected, neither automaker has gone on public record about the ongoing proceedings.

If There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

The BYD Ti7 was launched in China just over a year ago as a premium off-roading SUV. Its design is predominantly boxy and upright, and it even has a rear-mounted storage box. A lot has been said about the Ti7, but it’s always been compared to the Land Rover Defender in terms of design. BYD is actually going to launch the Ti7 in Europe soon, with pre-orders already underway. It severely undercuts the Land Rover Defender by around 20,000 GBP, which could be why JLR is quite angry with the brand.

JLR isn’t one to shy away from copyright disputes; its first major case was against carmaker Jiangling in 2019. Back then, JLR won the case, which said the Landwind X7’s design was too close to the Range Rover Evoque.