This is the brand new Baojun 510, a small crossover utility vehicle (CUV) for China. It was launched on the Chinese car market earlier this week. Baojun is a brand under SAIC-GM-Wuling, a three-way joint venture between Shanghai Automotive Industry Company (SAIC), General Motors (GM), and Wuling Motors. GM has a 44% stake in this joint venture.
SAIC and GM also work together in Shanghai-GM, a much larger joint venture that makes Buick, Chevrolet, and Cadillac cars for the Chinese market.
The Baojun brand was founded in 2011 and has been going through an interesting transformation. Baojun started as a dull-design budget-brand with cars based on older GM and Wuling platforms.
However, since about two years the brand has been firmly refocused on young first-car buyers living in second and third tier cities. While the cars are still based on older platforms, their design has been completely overhauled.
Dull has been replaced by 'almost-wild' - just compare the old Baijun 630 and Baojun Yueche with the new Baojun 310, the upcoming E100 mini EV, and this 510 CUV.
As the Baojun brand is almost entirely focused on the young in smaller cities, their cars have to be rally cheap. The 510 does not disappoint. It is just over four meters long, it seats five, has an eight-inch touchscreen and is powered by a 1.5-liter petrol with 111hp and 147nm, mated to a six-speed manual, sending horses to the front wheels.
Price for all this pretty is between 54,800 yuan and 69,800 yuan ($7975 - 10,157). What enables the 510 to be so cheap is that it is based on the platform of the third generation Chevrolet Sail, which has been in production at Shanghai-GM since 2014. The engine too comes from the Sail. In the future, Baojun will add an automatic transmission and a 1.5 turbo to the lineup.
Baojun 510, by Tycho de Feijter.
The transformation from budget to young seems to work. Sales of the Baojun brand were up to 760,000 units in 2016, compared with 503,000 in 2015. The 510 will likely help to push sales up higher again this year.
However, the competition is murderous. Small and compact SUVs and crossovers are the two hottest segments of the Chinese car market at the moment. Other foreign automakers are slow to respond, but local brands are rushing new models to the market in a dazzling speed, including offerings from Changan, Changhe, and FAW.
These cars are getting better all the time and the local brands are now so flexible that they can introduce an updated model every year. Hence Baojun got to run like a horse just to keep up.
Baojun dealer in Beijing, by Tycho de Feijter.
Large cities like Beijing are not the primary hunting ground for Baojun, their offerings are basically too cheap for most citizens. The brand has just three small shops in the capital, a city of over 20 million. The one I went to was so tiny it has only enough space for one car in its showroom, the other cars were displayed outside.
