Chinese carmaker BYD’s offices in Netherlands raided over JLR ‘copycat car’ claim

Bailiffs acting for Jaguar Land Rover raided the Dutch offices of a Chinese “copycat” rival before a legal showdown this week over whether its “Defender clone” infringes intellectual property rights.

Bailiffs acting on behalf of JLR reportedly seized digital records from the offices of Chinese carmaker BYD in Schiedam and Hoofddorp in August, according to the Sunday Times.

The raid took place before a court case in the The Hague this week which will decide whether the BYD has a case to answer over allegations that its Ti7 SUV infringes the intellectual property of the Land Rover Defender.

Motoring experts have likened BYD’s seven-seat plug-in hybrid SUV to the Defender since it went on sale in China in September last year. The company is scheduled to launch the vehicle, which the BBC’s Top Gear magazine called the “Chinese Defender clone”, in the UK market in January at a price of £47,995, undercutting the Defender by more than £20,000.

BYD says on its website that “an unapologetically boxy profile delivers the imposing, chunky design that finds favour among SUV buyers, yet delivers a contemporary look”.

The price of JLR’s seven-seat Defender 110 starts from £68,465and is one of the country’s bestselling cars. The UK-based carmaker, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, sold 29,500 Defenders to retail customers between July and September this year, compared with 25,370a year earlier.

The raid in the Netherlands was carried out by court-ordered bailiffs, with JLR suspecting that BYD reverse-engineered some of the technology that could be used in the Ti7, the Times reported. JLR wanted to secure the digital records before they could be destroyed.

JLR and BYD declined to comment on the “ongoing legal proceedings”.

The dispute with BYD is not the first legal case JLR has pursed against a Chinese company over copycat allegations. It won a legal case to stop Jiangling Motor Corporation selling a copycat vehicle in 2019 after a three-year court battle.

In some cases JLR has taken a collaborative approach to dealing with the rise of China’s carmakers. It agreed to form a joint venture with Chery in a 2012 deal which later included licensing its discontinued Freelander brand with the company.

Chery’s Jaecoo model, which is 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 between the pair. It costs £10,000 less than JLR’s Range Rover.

The Jaecoo was the bestselling car in the UK in October, with 10,813 registrations, taking 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.