Jaguar Land Rover is in the middle of legal action against Chinese carmaker BYD, with court-appointed bailiffs in the Netherlands raiding two offices over claims by JLR that BYD’s new Ti7 SUV copies the Land Rover Defender. 

The searches took place in August ahead of a court hearing in The Hague this week, with news emerging over the weekend that digital records were seized from two of BYD Europe’s offices in the country. 

JLR apparently claims that BYD has reverse engineered technology from the Defender by stripping it down, a claim that will be tested in the court hearing this week. Neither company has made any public comment about the dispute. 

The current version of the Defender has been on sale since 2020, so you'd expect a new one on the way soon, but recent reports have suggested the electric replacement for the car has been pushed back beyond 2030 in order to save money. 

What is the BYD Ti7 SUV?

The Ti7 was revealed over the summer ahead with orders opening ahead of the plug-in SUV’s deliveries starting in early 2027. 

The car will be BYD’s first seven-seater on the European market, combining three electric motors and a 35.6kWh Blade battery with a 1.5-litre petrol engine. BYD says the car can manage up to 74 miles on electric power. 

The car will be well equipped as standard, with a fridge, panoramic sunroof, heated seats for the front and outer middle row seats, three-zone aircon, a 15.6in touchscreen infotainment system and an 18-speaker sound system. 

The Ti7 will be a practical proposition – 126 litres of space with all the seats up, increasing to 970 litres with the back two seats folded away (though we suspect that’s measured to the ceiling rather than the traditional window line measurement) and 1,830 litres with all the seats down.

Prices for the Ti7 start from £47,995, which compares well to the Defender’s £71,840 price for the cheapest 110 model with a plug-in hybrid powertrain (that only manages 31 miles of range). 

The plug-in hybrid version of the Defender is only available as a six-seater as an £815 option because of the battery pack, Land Rover adding a jump seat between the front two seats.