Bailiffs Seize BYD Records in Netherlands Over Ti7 Dispute
Court-ordered bailiffs acting for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) seized digital records from BYD offices in the Netherlands in August 2026, according to The Guardian. The offices were in Schiedam and Hoofddorp. The seizure is part of a dispute over whether a BYD SUV copies the Land Rover Defender.
JLR, which is owned by India's Tata Motors, suspected that BYD had reverse-engineered technology that could be used in the Ti7. Reverse-engineering means studying a product to work out how it was made. JLR sought to secure BYD's digital records before they could be destroyed.
The dispute now moves to a court in The Hague. A case there in the week of 8 November 2026 will decide whether BYD has a case to answer, meaning whether the claims are strong enough to proceed. The allegation is that the Ti7 infringes Land Rover Defender intellectual property, the legal rights over a design or invention.
The Ti7 is a seven-seat plug-in hybrid SUV, a vehicle with a battery that can be charged from an outside power source alongside a petrol engine. It went on sale in China in September 2025. BYD is scheduled to launch it in the UK in January at a price of £47,995. JLR's seven-seat Defender 110 starts from £68,465.
BBC Top Gear magazine has called the Ti7 the "Chinese Defender clone". BYD describes the vehicle as having "an unapologetically boxy profile" and an "imposing, chunky design".
JLR has pursued a similar complaint before. In 2019 it won a legal case to stop Jiangling Motor Corporation selling a copycat vehicle, after a three-year court battle. JLR also agreed in 2012 to form a joint venture with the carmaker Chery, a partnership that later included licensing JLR's discontinued Freelander brand.
JLR sold 29,500 Defenders to retail customers between July and September 2026, up from 25,370 a year earlier. Range Rover sales fell to 43,300 in the third quarter of 2026, from 47,196 in the same period last year.
JLR and BYD declined to comment on the ongoing legal proceedings.
