LandWind, which is owned by a joint venture company formed between Chinese companies Changan Auto and Jiangling Motors, unveiled the vehicle – which it calls the X7 — at the Guangzhou auto show in southern China last week.
The many similarities it shares with the Evoque, a luxury all-terrain vehicle, have turned heads.
“Once the matter has been investigated thoroughly, we will take whatever steps are appropriate to protect our intellectual property,” a spokeswoman for the luxury car maker—a unit of India’s Tata Motors–wrote in an email to China Real Time.
LandWind could not be immediately reached for comment.
A big difference between the two is price. An imported Evoque sells in China from around 578,000 yuan (around $95,000) –although that price is set to drop considerably now that JLR has started to produce the model in China at its new plant.
By contrast, LandWind’s X7 is priced from 135,000 yuan, or roughly a quarter of that sum.
Jaguar Land Rover, a British-founded brand, is not amused. “Range Rover Evoque has been incredibly successful and has won over 160 awards globally,” said JLR. “The Land Rover brand has been at the forefront of all-terrain vehicles for the last 65 years, design and capability will continue to be at the core of the brand,” the company added.
In the fiscal year ended March 31, Jaguar Land Rover sold more than 100,000 vehicles in China, up more than 30% from the year before, making it the company’s single largest market.
Some Chinese netizens were not surprised by the similarities between LandWind’s car and the Evoque. Writing on Weibo, user Xiangxiang Jifeng wrote: “Never mind cars. Even our system of government is a copycat of the [former] Soviet Union’s.”