“Oops they did it again” with the Yangwang U8

Jaguar Land Rover, the British group controlled by Tata’s Indians, has already accumulated some experience in design disputes. In 2019, a court in Beijing had proved him right in the dispute with the Jiangling Motor Corporation which had launched the suv on the domestic market Landwind X7 whose excessive similarities with the Evoke they had led to sale prohibition and the suspension of production (who the news). The same JLR had instead won the following year against the Infineos of billionaire Jim Ratcliff who had decided to launch the Grenadier, an off-road vehicle that according to JLR resembled the previous generation of the Defender. In this case, the lines they had been judged sufficiently badges in order not to block its marketing.

And this time another Chinese car seems to want to take inspiration from an English one. It’s about the YangwangU8electric off-road vehicle exhibited by the new BYD brand, the Chinese manufacturer which has just launched its European offensive with three zero-emission models (the Han sedan and the Atto 3 and Tang SUVs) which could arrive in Italy as early as the end of 2023, that looks a lot like to the last generation of Land Rover Defender.

As we can see from the images, if not in the details of the front and tail, which are clearly different, in the general layout of the bodywork YangwangU8 definitely took inspiration from the Defender. From which, however, it clearly differs from the mechanical point of view for the electric motor (the British suv can be had as a plug-in at most), among other things with a power that is anything but indifferent given that it reaches 1,100hp.

> In the photo above the Defender, higher up the Yangwang U8.

In the 8-seater version, the Defender reaches 5.36 meters in length, while the Yangwang U8 it stops at 5.3, proportions that also in design can facilitate the comparison. As for performance, the top-of-the-range Yangwang U8 is unapproachable: it is credited with a 0-100 km/h acceleration time of 3 seconds. Thanks to the technological paraphernalia with which it is equipped, it has been announced that it can travel up to 120 km/h even with a flat tire.

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