Tata Motors-owned British luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover is pursuing legal action against Chinese automaker Jiangling Motor. The Jiangling Land Wind X7 SUV, which is a Chinese knock-off of the Range Rover Evoque, was unveiled in 2014.
According to a Reuters report, JLR is suing Jiangling for purportedly imitating the Range Rover Evoque, a rare move by a foreign automaker to fight copycats in the world’s biggest automobile market.
The Landwind X7 SUV received flak for its likeness to the Evoque. Everything, from the car’s hood, to its head-lamps, side grilles, and rear-bumper, look eerily similar to that of the Evoque. The Chinese copy only costs nearly a third of the price of the Evoque.
JLR sales fell by a fifth in China in January-March of last year – when it launched its China-made Evoque – after rising 36 percent in the same 2014 period. In the same period this year, JLR’s China sales rose 19 percent.
Just last year, the Chinese company was banned from exporting the Land Wind X7 SUV to Brazil, after it managed to secure an interested importer in the country.
The Land Wind X7 has a wheelbase of 2670mm, and is powered by a Mitsubishi petrol 2.0T engine, mated to an 8 speed Automatic Transmission unit.
Images: http://chinaautoweb.com/