A sweet Beijing Auto BJ40 F40, seen on a cold winter’s day in January 2020 in Beijing. The Beijing Auto BJ40 F40 launched in 2019 as a sporty and cool variant of the 3-door version of the BJ40 SUV.
The name was a tad confusing so Beijing has since re-launched it as a stand-alone model, simply called the Beijing Auto F40. It received a facelift in late 2020. The car I saw is a rare early model with the original messy name.
The Beijing brand is owned by BAIC Motor, itself part of the BAIC Group. They like a bit of confusion there. There are now two Beijing brands: The first is Beijing Off Road, which makes the BJ90, BJ80, BJ40, BJ30, and our sporty F40. The second is the new Beijing Auto brand, the successor of the Senova brand. They make a whole lot of petrol powered cars and EVs, including the Beijing X7 SUV and the Beijing EU7 sedan.
For now, the two Beijing’s exist alongside each other, confusing customers, as their brand image is quite different. Beijing Off Road is about rough off-road capable cars with big petrol engine, whereas Beijing Auto is more about design and, increasingly, about green new-energy vehicles. How BAIC will solve this puzzle is yet unknown, but rest assured they will create more brands in the future.
Back to the vehicle at hand! For sake of easiness, I’ll refer to it as F40 from now on. It is a very cool car; two seats, with two doors, a removable roof, and a removable hardtop at the back. The alloy design is very nice too.
The early cars, like the one that I saw, were powered by a 2.3 liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with 250 hp and 350 Nm. This engine was originally developed by Saab.
BAIC Motor got the rights to the engine in 2009 when it bought several Saab engines and platforms from General Motors. The engine was mated to a six-speed automatic, sending horses to all four wheels. Price in 2019 was 149.800 yuan, an absolute steal for such a powerful car.
Sadly, nowadays the 2.3 turbo has been replaced by a 2.0 turbo, sourced from Shenyang-Mitsubishi. This engine puts out 224 hp and 380 Nm, and it is mated to an 8-speed automatic.
The interior was very basic but not un-pretty. The seats are partially fabric and partially faux leather. It is a proper off-road vehicle with a separate lever for the 4WD system. The main screen was tiny even for 2019. Passenger could hold onto a very big handlebar.
The rear compartment is big enough for a full supply for a BBQ up in the mountains. There are quite a few off-road clubs in Beijing, and what they like to do best is in the weekends is to drive north ‘over’ the Great Wall and ride wild in the mountains, ending the day with a big baijiu BBQ. On longer holidays, these clubs usually go to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, where the BBQ = roasting an entire lamb.
Top: BJ40. Bottom: 北京汽车, Beijing Auto.
Fuel cap with the Beijing brand name.
Spare wheel on the back, extra wide wheel arches, big black bumpers, and side bars. The Beijing Auto F40 looks ready for everything.
A long line of five-door BJ40’s waiting for buyers.
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