Court-ordered bailiffs operating on behalf of JLR have raided BYD’s offices in the Netherlands in an ongoing legal row over the similarity of the new BYD Ti 7 and the Land Rover Defender 110.
According to The Times, the raid was conducted in August, with JLR looking to find documents relating to the stripping down and reverse-engineering of a Defender in the seven-seat Ti 7’s development.
BYD’s boxy SUV is confirmed to arrive in the Philippines. In the UK, sales will begin in January 2027, with prices starting at just £47,995 (P4.1 million before taxes) for this plug-in hybrid SUV. A seven-seat Defender 110 is over £20,000 (P1.7 million) more, and you can only have the PHEV with a maximum of six seats. See why JLR is worried?
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“JLR does not comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” said a spokesperson from JLR, which also happens to have a joint venture with BYD’s Chinese rival Chery. That tie-up originally allowed Chery to build Jaguars, the Range Rover Evoque, and the Land Rover Discovery Sport in China, but it’s now giving the Chinese megacorp the rights to revive the Freelander as its own brand.
Anyway, we’re told that a Dutch court will decide this week whether BYD has a case to answer over the alleged intellectual property theft. Check out the images of the Ti 7 and the Defender above—do you think the looks are too close a match?
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
