Beijing Auto Show 2024 Highlights Part 2: the Chinese brands

Hyper SSR

It’s time to get to know the famous Chinese brands at home, at the Beijing Auto Show. They are classified in alphabetical order, so there is no particular preference here. The three most impressive Chinese brands at the exhibition will be discussed in a separate article.

The main takeaway is that there were no more small brands. Every automaker that was here spent a lot of money to show up, and each of them should be taken seriously. As you’ll see below, there were some surprises regarding how the brands showed up in each group.

Aion U Plus

Some brands, which we might call secondary, no longer exist, and sometimes they have outgrown the original. This is about Aiontaking up most of the position of its parent company GAC.

Arcfox αS5 Beijing SUV BJ40

Likewise BIKE The Arcfox featured prominently on the stand, and the SUV division was the only member of the BAIC family with not a single Beijing vehicle in sight.

Details about BYD Qin L BYD Seagull

BID, China’s new market leader, has unveiled three new models: Qin L, Seal 06 and Sea Lion 07, as well as the Ocean-M concept. We expected a new Shark pickup truck to be unveiled, but it wasn’t. The main attraction for me was the availability of the Seagull, the brand’s cheapest electric offering at RMB 69,800–85,800 (€9,000–11,100 or US$9,600–11,800). In my opinion, this is also one of the BYD cars with the greatest potential in export markets. Well, I’m happy to report that the Seagull’s interior punches above its weight. There are two reasonably sized digital screens, two wireless phone charging pads, a power driver’s seat, and the gearbox is a rotary dial underneath the main touchscreen. The materials are a weak point overall, but are still a very impressive result.

CATL had its own booth at the Beijing Auto Show to introduce its new Shenxing Plus battery. This is a significant step forward for the manufacturer, as the lithium iron phosphate battery provides 4C charging and can travel 600 km in just 10 minutes, with a total range of 1000 km.

Qiyuan E07

The Changan stand was dominated by the Qiyuan brand, displaying the eye-catching E07. One of the few Changan models was the new generation Hunter pickup.

The unexpected appearance of a Dadao brand pickup truck.

Building on the success of its D9 minivan, Denza has introduced the Z9 GT sports sedan.

M-Hero 917 eπ 008

The Dongfeng booth only featured a couple of actual Dongfeng models, including the quirky 4WD concept pictured above. The rest of the showroom was surprisingly and prominently represented by the M-Hero off-road brand, with quite a few ‘917s’ in attendance. Voyah took over the remainder of the stand and announced ambitious plans to expand internationally. New eπ 008 was also introduced.

Fan Cheng Bao Bao 8Fan Cheng Bao Bao 5Fan Cheng Bao Super 9

Lots of noise in Fang Cheng Bao stand. It’s a BYD brand, but it has its own stand-alone showroom, just like Denza (above) and Yangwang, as we’ll see. The brand showed two concept cars: the Super 9 roadster and the Super 3 SUV, as well as the existing Bao 5 with the snazzy center steering (pictured above) and the new Bao 8. The existence of the Super 9 seems to indicate that there won’t be a Feng Cheng Bao a brand that produces only SUVs.

Hawal H9Poer Pickup

GVM all of its brands were grouped under one roof, giving them no room to breathe. Interestingly, they were provided with approximately the same number of cars at the dealership. Poer and Tank each had four, while Haval, WEY and Ora each had three. In the case of Haval, we are now far from the giant stands that the brand previously occupied on its own. The long-awaited new generation of H9 was present.

GAC Aion’s Hyper the brand debuted independently at the show, although it retained the same logo as Aion. Confusing. The automaker showed SSR, HT and GT.

iCar V23iCar X25

This is a surprisingly large stand for a new brand. iCar from Chery, released a year ago. iCar has unveiled a sports version of its unique 03 model, dubbed the 03T. There were also two impressive concepts: the V23 and the X25.

Last time we visited a Chinese auto show, Jetur, another Chery brand, is just one year old and showing promising results. Five years later, the automaker has firmly established itself in the market and ranks approximately 20th in the overall ranking of Chinese brands. None of the original models (X70, X90, X95…) are represented here, leaving room for the new Shanhai NEV series such as the T1 (pictured) and T5. The manufacturer also introduced the new Shanhai L7 SUV.

Lee L6 Lee Mega

Selling blockbuster Lee Auto introduced the new L6, its smallest SUV, which was destined to become another shining success for the brand. The main attraction of the Li stand, however, was the new Mega MPV, and its cabin did not disappoint, with a roof-mounted screen with gesture controls for rear passengers (see last image).

Excellent large showroom of the Geely’s Lynk & Co brand, imitating European streets. The 08 EM-P was introduced.

NIO Battery Replacement Demonstration

NIO’s stand, interestingly, was more sedan-focused and showcased the new super-luxurious ET7 Executive Edition. There was also a demonstration of battery replacement.

I was surprised to see a full-fledged stand for Polestonesformerly known as Rox. The brand’s unique 01 model was shown, with an interior that meets Chinese standards, especially with a giant central touchscreen.

Xpeng X9 interior

Shpeng showcased the most outlandish concept yet at the show, as well as the recently unveiled X9 minivan with a roof-mounted screen for the rear passenger. The company also announced a new AI-focused sub-brand called MONA (meaning “Made of New Artificial Intelligence”) with affordable prices ranging from RMB 100,000 to RMB 150,000. MONA will officially launch in June.

Yanwan U8Yanwan U7

Yanwan was one of the main attractions of the exhibition, generating great interest in its flagship U8 SUV. The dashboard surprisingly retains plenty of physical buttons, and the touchscreen is large but not huge. There are some interesting technological limitations here. After the U9 supercar, the brand also introduced a third model – the flagship U7 sedan with 1300 hp, capable of accelerating to 100 km/h in just 2.9 seconds.

Yuanhan Y7Yuanhang Range

We end this review with Yuanhan, a little-known automaker that presented a full-fledged stand at the exhibition. However, Yuanhang was present in our sales reports with no less than four vehicles: the Y6 and Y7 sedans, and the H8 and H9 SUVs.

That’s all for now, below we present three of the most impressive automakers at the Beijing Auto Show!