By YANG Shihan

BJ90 2021, a full-size luxury SUV by Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC) has become something of a hero in the current price war in China’s auto market, at least symbolically.

The price of the BAIC flagship stood at around 998,000 yuan (US$145,000) a few weeks ago and is now widely advertised for only 360,000 yuan. In some unofficial stores, the price dropped as far as 280,000 yuan.

According to a BAIC salesman, although the BJ90 model has been strongly discounted, it has not fallen by a “direct reduction of 710,000 yuan”. The 360,000 yuan car in the showroom is already the lowest price.

As for the purchase of a BJ90′ for 280,000 yuan, those cars were not supplied through the showroom network but were purchased by auto trade companies without a warranty directly from the manufacturer.

Originally seen in 2015, the BJ90 debuted at an event in Beijing in August 2017 and went on sale in 2018. The?BJ90 is built on the platform of the old Mercedes-Benz GL. Engines, gearboxes and chassis of the two cars are the same. It’s a vehicle that is well past its sell-by date and the reductions might be more about clearing out inventory that any price war.

Apart from its own brand, BAIC Group also owns Beijing Benz, a joint venture between BAIC Motor and Mercedes-Benz Group, Beijing Hyundai, and Fujian Benz.

Last year, BAIC Group’s sales volume dropped 8 percent to 947,000 units, with Beijing Benz the only division to see a rise in sales. BAIC Group recorded revenue of 190 billion yuan, 96.2 percent of which was contributed by Beijing Benz.

BAIC BluePark New Energy, an EV spinoff of BAIC Group, is also losing money. Since 2020,?it lost a total of 17 billion yuan. Though sales almost doubled in 2022 to 50,000 units, but it was still only about half of the goal set a year before.

Two years ago, Huawei announced that it was partnering with BluePark’s Premium EV marque Arcfox to produce a luxury EV powered by Huawei’s HI (Huawei Inside) solution, capable of level-3 autonomous driving.

Only around 10,000 Arcfox left BAIC showrooms last year, a long way short of the 40,000 goal. Arcfox had 186 dealerships by the end of 2022 and the number is expected to grow by another 100 this year.