Home » Business » David v. Goliath: Jaguar Land Rover calls for a ban on the import of VW SUVs in the USA

David v. Goliath: Jaguar Land Rover calls for a ban on the import of VW SUVs in the USA

The British company Jaguar Land Rover, which includes the brands of the same name, wants (at least in the USA) to complicate the life of the German Volkswagen Group. He is calling for a ban on the import of group SUVs, as they are to infringe the patent on the Terrain Response system.

Terrain Response is a kind of ESP in the field, a clever system that helps the driver when passing through mud, snow, sand or when driving on a rocky road. Appropriately sets the behavior of the engine, transmission, interaxle, or rear differential or ESP.

Terrain Response was first introduced by Land Rover in the 2005 Discovery model and has since spread to two British SUVs in two generations, and is also used by Jaguar models such as the F-Pace.

The small British car concern (which sold less than 560,000 cars last year), which has recently been facing financial difficulties, considers it one of its key technologies. And now he doesn’t like the fact that SUVs are sold in the US that use patented technology.

He is therefore demanding a ban from the US Commission on International Trade (USITC) on the import of SUVs from one of the world’s largest car companies, Volkswagen, whose sales last year exceeded ten million units. Specifically, these are models of Audi (Q5, Q7, Q8, A6 allroad quattro and e-tron), Lamborghini (Urus), Porsche (Cayenne) and VW (Tiguan).

Volkswagen has not commented on the whole thing yet. For an American server Engadget he only made a brief statement that he “is examining the whole matter in order to decide on further steps”.

For VW, if the Jaguar Land Rover succeeds, the whole thing could be quite painful. The Tiguan was the world’s best-selling VW in 2019, and the Q5 is the world’s second most successful Audi. Luxury cars such as the Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7, Q8 or Lamborghini Urus are then combined with large margins on one piece sold.

The Commission for International Trade usually decides on the matter in fifteen to eighteen months. Although it may seem like a long time, it is usually faster than the courts, so the complainants like to turn to it.

However, the disadvantage is that it can only prohibit the import of problematic goods on its own. It is therefore not possible to claim financial compensation from her. Therefore, Jaguar Land Rover has filed two more lawsuits in federal courts in Delaware and New Jersey. However, the proceedings with them are likely to wait for the commission’s decision.

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