China’s copy and paste practice seems to know no boundaries and international copyright laws practically have no effect on this country. And adding a new brand into the huge list copied by them, an Evoque clone had recently surfaced from China and needless to say, the CEO of Range Rover is not pleased with what he had seen.
“The fact that this kind of copying is ongoing in China is very disappointing. The simple principle 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,” said Land Rover CEO Dr. Ralf Speth to Autocar magazine.
“I will talk to our officials and I will talk to our partners at Chery to find a way around this situation. I cannot imagine Chinese officials will be happy at any actions that undermine the credibility of the country. What we have seen today is not correct,” he added.
It would not take long for one to realize how close the LandWind X7 SUV resembles the Range Rover Evoque. In fact, it looks pretty much like a carbon copy of the Evoque we see everywhere, minus the very minor and subtle changes thrown in like the front grille. The X7 will go on sale later this month with a price tag of £14,000 (RM 73,270). It has a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that produces 188-horsepower, mated to a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic gearbox.