The offices of Chinese carmaker BYD in the Netherlands have been searched as part of a legal dispute with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). The British company claims that the BYD Ti7 SUV infringes intellectual property rights relating to the Land Rover Defender.
According to CarNewsChina, in August 2026 court-appointed officials seized digital documents from BYD's offices in Schiedam and Hoofddorp. JLR suspects that the Chinese company may have dismantled a Defender and used reverse engineering to copy certain technologies for the Ti7.
A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for 11 November in The Hague. Neither JLR nor BYD has yet commented publicly on the proceedings. No infringement of intellectual property rights has yet been established.
The Ti7 went on sale in the Chinese market in September 2025 under the Fang Cheng Bao brand as the Bao 7. The model was later renamed the Tai 7. The SUV's appearance, with its boxy body, upright front end, square wheel arches and rear luggage compartment, has repeatedly been compared with the Land Rover Defender.
The Chinese version of the Ti7 is 4999 mm long, 1995 mm wide and 1865 mm high, with a wheelbase of 2920 mm. It seats five people, whereas the export version for Europe has seven seats. According to BYD, the Defender is 5146 mm long including its rear-mounted spare wheel.
The Ti7 is fitted with a 1.5-litre turbocharged engine combined with electric motors and is offered with front-wheel or all-wheel drive. In April 2026, BYD unveiled a fully electric version of the model in China with a range of up to 755 km on the CLTC cycle.
This is not JLR's first dispute with a Chinese carmaker over vehicle design. In 2019, the British company won a case against Jiangling Motor Corporation concerning the Landwind X7 model, which looked similar to the Range Rover Evoque.
