Jaguar Land Rover has stepped up its legal fight with Chinese carmaker BYD, after bailiffs acting for the British firm searched BYD's offices in the Netherlands and seized digital records.

The searches took place in August at BYD premises in Schiedam and Hoofddorp, according to the Sunday Times. Court-ordered bailiffs carried out the operation on JLR's behalf, and the material they took is expected to play a part in proceedings in The Hague.

A court hearing this week will decide whether BYD has a case to answer over claims that its new Ti7 SUV copies the Land Rover Defender. The Ti7 is a seven-seat plug-in hybrid that motoring experts have compared with the Defender since it went on sale in China in September last year.

The commercial stakes are clear. BYD plans to launch the Ti7 in Britain in January priced from £47,995, which would undercut the Defender by more than £20,000. The seven-seat Defender 110, by contrast, starts at £68,465 and remains one of Britain's bestselling large cars.

JLR is said to be concerned that BYD may have reverse-engineered some of the technology used in the Ti7, and wanted the digital records secured before they could be destroyed. Both companies have declined to comment while legal proceedings are under way.

The dispute is not JLR's first court battle with a Chinese rival over alleged copying. In 2019 it won a case that stopped Jiangling Motor Corporation from selling a copycat vehicle, after a legal fight lasting three years.