LandWind X7 goes on sale in China next month
Despite lawsuits filed by Jaguar Land Rover against Chinese carmaker LandWind over ‘intellectual property theft’ which sees the LandWind X7 closely mimic the Evoque’s design, the car is expected to go on sale in China next month.
LandWind, a joint company between Changan Auto and Jiangling Motors Corporation, is no stranger to these copycat accusations; the CV9 resembled a popular Vauxhall model Frontera before the project was shelved – allegedly due to poor safety. The LandWind X7, revealed last year has a considerably less advanced 140kW, 285Nm 2.0-litre 4-cylinder engine but is also expected to cost a third of the Evoque’s price.
JLR boss Ralf Speith spoke out following the failed lawsuit, “China, from my point of view has enough creativity and engineering power to do something on their own and doesn’t have to fall back to the time when copying was of interest. We can’t do anything. I hope the Chinese customer at the end of the day sees the difference and selects the real product and not a copied one. We hope they generate a self-regulation process so that they can get rid of this kind of copy-paste way of working.”
He went on to say, “The fact that this kind of copying is ongoing in China is very disappointing. The simple principal is that it is not something that should happen; the Intellectual Property is owned by Jaguar Land Rover and if you break that IP then you are in breach of international regulations that apply around the world.”
