Frazier vs Ali. Luke vs Vader. Now, the latest showdown between two great rivals has happened between the Range Rover Evoque and its controversial Chinese lookalike, the Landwind X7.
The two vehicles, virtually identical in terms of both styling and colour, were involved in a prang with each other in the Chinese city of Chongquig.
Even the owners might have struggled to tell which car was which, given the remarkable similarities between the Evoque and its Chinese-built doppelganger.
Fake Range Rover meets real Range Rover. pic.twitter.com/xUTrsTfLHi
— Shanghaiist.com (@shanghaiist) August 3, 2016
The crash itself wasn’t serious and police decided the Landwind driver was at fault, but elsewhere there’s another battle raging between the cars and a clear winner has yet to be decided.
Since its release, the Landwind X7 has attracted its fair share of controversy, with Jaguar Land Rover even launching a legal suit against manufacturer Jiangling Motors for allegedly copying its design.
Jaguar Land Rover claims that the X7 directly ripped off the design of the Evoque, which is incidentally the manufacturer’s first car built in China.
Despite the fact that copying cars is often rife in east Asia, manufacturers generally don’t take legal action against each other as they feel the odds of winning against local companies are low.
Awkward: Range Rover Evoque and Landwind X7 Collide - https://t.co/T3eRq7JJuF pic.twitter.com/qkod3hBGei
— The Truth About Cars (@TTAC) August 3, 2016
As well as that, lawsuits can be bad for the manufacturer’s branding, particularly if the public were to think that a foreign company was seen to be ‘bullying’ domestic competitors.
Jaguar Land Rover’s case is therefore a rare one, and also an important one as, if it wins, it could prompt other manufacturers to follow suit and result in stronger enforcement of intellectual property rights.
It’s unclear how the case will pan out, but according to a Land Rover spokesman Jiangling has already been barred from selling the Landwind in the Brazilian market.
