Jaguar Land Rover has said it will take all necessary steps to protect the design of its Defender, as the British carmaker moves to stop Chinese manufacturer BYD from selling a large SUV that it believes copies the iconic model. The company's chief executive has made clear that JLR will not accept infringement of its intellectual property, and the dispute is now being fought in the courts.
The legal case has been filed in the Netherlands, where BYD has its European headquarters. It targets the BYD Ti7, a large plug-in hybrid SUV that offers a claimed electric range of 74 miles. The Ti7 is widely regarded as a Defender look-alike in China, where it has entered the top ten best-selling vehicles this year. It is due to reach European showrooms, and in the UK it starts at £47,995, roughly £20,000 less than the Defender.
JLR says the visual parallels go beyond general resemblance. The company points in particular to the rear side panel and the blacked-out pillars, features it considers central to the Defender's identity. The carmaker began proceedings in August after learning of BYD's plans to sell the Ti7 in the UK, and it subsequently obtained a court order to seize BYD sales-plan documents as part of its case.
That seizure has become a point of contention. BYD described the move as a fishing expedition, arguing that its scope was excessive. On November 12 a judge sided with the Chinese company, ordering that the files be returned. The ruling also required JLR to pay BYD's legal costs. JLR has since said the documents are no longer needed, pointing to BYD's public announcement of its European plans. A substantive hearing is expected later this month, and its outcome is not yet known.
The dispute is not the first time JLR has contested a vehicle it believes resembles the Defender. The company lost an earlier case in 2020 against Ineos Grenadier over similarity between the two off-roaders. The wider industry has also seen similar clashes. Great Wall's Peri was blocked from sale in Europe in 2008, and BMW halted sales of a Shuanghuan model that it considered a clone of its X5 that same year. Chinese rival BAIC's Xingtan 5X has been described as an even closer copy of the Defender, priced at around £15,000.
The stakes for JLR are commercially significant. The Defender costs roughly £82,500 in China, and sales there fell 39 per cent in the three months to September, while cheaper look-alikes have gained ground. Despite that slump, the Defender remains JLR's best-selling model worldwide, with 28,465 units sold, a rise of 16 per cent. How the Dutch courts rule on the Ti7 may shape whether the Chinese challenger can establish itself in Europe with a design that the British manufacturer insists is its own.