The key facts
- In August 2026, at JLR's initiative, electronic data was seized from BYD's offices in Schiedam and Hoofddorp
- JLR suspects that BYD dismantled a Defender and used its solutions in the Ti 7 model; no infringement has been proven
- The Ti 7 in the UK costs from £47,995 versus £68,465 for the Defender 110; customer deliveries begin in January 2027
Data seizure and upcoming hearings
The British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has suspected China's BYD of copying the technology of the Land Rover Defender off-roader and has secured a court-ordered seizure of materials from its competitor. According to The Guardian, in August 2026 court bailiffs, acting on a court order, seized electronic data from two of BYD's Dutch offices — in Schiedam and Hoofddorp. The aim was to preserve digital materials that may be relevant to the proceedings. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 11 November in The Hague: the court will assess whether there are grounds for further consideration of JLR's claims. Neither company is publicly commenting on the ongoing dispute, and no infringement of intellectual property rights has yet been established.
The essence of the claims and discrepancies in the details
According to JLR's version, BYD specialists may have dismantled a Defender in order to copy some of the technical solutions later used in the BYD Fang Cheng Bao Ti 7 crossover. Gazeta.Ru notes that the Ti 7's appearance — an angular body, upright front-end styling and a square roof box on the tailgate — is often compared with the Defender. There are discrepancies in the details of the reports: Life.ru writes that deliveries of the Ti 7 to British customers are planned from January 2027, whereas Gazeta.Ru specifies that pre-orders are already open, the first cars are expected to appear in British showrooms in November 2026, and customer deliveries will begin in January 2027. The model has been on sale in China since September 2025.
The price gap and the context of the dispute
The dispute arose on the eve of the Chinese model's entry into the British market, where it is noticeably cheaper than its rival: the seven-seat Ti 7 hybrid is priced from £47,995, while the Defender 110 starts at a minimum of £68,465. At the same time, the Defender remains in demand: from July to September, JLR sold 29,500 such vehicles to private buyers, up from 25,370 a year earlier. This is not JLR's first such conflict: in 2019, the group won a case against China's Jiangling Motor Corporation, proving the similarity of the Landwind X7 to the Range Rover Evoque. At the same time, the British company cooperates with the Chinese market — since 2012 it has operated a joint venture with Chery.
