The upcoming Beijing Auto Show in April will see another round of Chinese clones of familiar Western models including a Mercedes-Benz G-Class doppelganger crafted by Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co., which most people know as Beiqi or by the acronym BAIC.
It is believed that BAIC’s new G-Class inspired model that goes under the uninspired name B80VJ, will be displayed as a thinly disguised concept at the Beijing Auto Show with the production model to follow shortly after.
And if you’re not convinced about the resemblance between the G-Class and the B80VJ from the drawings or the single rendering, a spy picture of BAIC’s 4×4 loaded on a truck bed leaves no doubts about where BAIC received its inspiration from.
What strikes us as the most remarkable thing in this matter is that BAIC is Mercedes-Benz’s partner in China producing the German firm’s models for the local market!
Just last summer, the two automakers signed a deal that involves Mercedes-Benz’s parent Daimler investing $2.87 billion to expand its operations with BAIC, called Joint Venture Beijing Benz Automotive Co, Ltd.
Adding salt to an open wound, this is not the first time that BAIC has cloned a Mercedes-Benz model as at the end of 2010, the Chinese firm presented the BC301Z, which is a blatant copy of the previous B-Class. Yet the Germans continue to do business with the Chinese automaker…
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