BYD Office Raided In Netherlands As JLR Alleges Defender Copying In Ti7 SUV

BYDs office in Netherlands has been raided due to the fact that the BYD Ti7 SUV is similar to the Land Rover Defender 110. The accusations amount to the fact that JLR suspects BYD to reverse engineer a Defender and it's technology.

BYDs 7 seater SUV does look similar to a Defender while it will be going on sale in the UK soon but wont be coming to India anytime soon. The question is whether the Ti7 infringes intellectual property rights and a court case will decide that.

BYD Ti7 And Land Rover Defender: What Is The Dispute?

This is not the first dispute as previously also JLR had pursued against another Chinese carmaker basis of the same copycat design allegations. The new suv to some extent from the side looks like a Defender but the front end is completely different. It is however being called as a Defender clone while not being a carbon copy.

However more than the design the court case also focuses on the allegations on the reverse engineering of the Defender. For Land Rover the Defender is their biggest cash cow and understandably the brand is protective of its best selling car.

JLR's China Partnership And Defender's Design Influence

Rather interestingly JLR also has a joint venture with Chery which is another big Chinese carmaker while recently the JV resulted in the new Freelancer suv.

The Defender has been a big success and it's design in some ways has also been found across different SUVs namely bringing back the boxy design elements which are now back in fashion.

Neither company for now has commented on the ongoing proceedings. For now it will be interesting to see how this battle pans out between these two carmakers.