China's motoring industry has made some incredible inroads over the last few years. And the recent Shanghai Auto Show was a good indicator of that, with design and equipment levels as good as ever on China's latest wave of concepts.
But while there are some manufacturers doing an excellent job, there are still plenty producing knock-offs of European, American, and Japanese products. And perhaps no other car is a better poster child for this than the Landwind X7. It's quite clearly a Land Rover Evoque from every angle (even inside). Even the name has half of Land Rover's in it.
When it was first revealed in 2014, Land Rover naturally launched into a legal dispute with Landwind's parent company, Jiangling, for pretty clear cut theft of intellectual property. But rather remarkably, very little progress has been made since.
Click here to read Driven's review of the Land Rover Evoque Convertible. The real one.
Speaking at the Shanghai Auto Show from Land Rover's display (one hall across from where Landwind proudly displayed a selection of cars including the X7), Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth confirmed that not a lot had been accomplished since the marque embarked on the task of taking down the copycat machine; answering a question about whether any progress had been made with a blunt "No. Not at all."
What makes things particularly sour for Land Rover is that the Evoque copy is actually a very healthy seller in China. They reportedly sold 80,002 of them last year, making them Landwind's most popular seller.
“They're doing very well. It's a good car. We know; it's our car,” added Speth. Ouch.
Any progress Land Rover could've made by now took a major hit almost a year ago, when Chinese authorities cancelled the patents posted by both Landwind and Land Rover for the design. In Land Rover's case, this was reportedly done because the car was displayed publicly a year before the patent was filed, while for Landwind patents were cancelled because ... it looked a fair bit like the Evoque.
I'm going to call it now that, just like other similar past cases, nothing is going to come from this.