The most popular model of the Chinese The history of the development of SUVs in China

If you want to say what model is the hottest today, it is also an SUV when you look at the world! SUVs accounted for 48% of global car sales in 2023, according to a new analysis by the International Energy Agency, meaning that almost one out of every two cars sold is an SUV. In China, car sales in January this year were about 2.439 million units, of which 1.149 million were SUVs, which also exceeded 47%. Chinese people like SUVs so much, so when did the first SUV start? Today, let's explore the story of SUVs in China.

When it comes to China's first SUV, many people think that it is the BJ212 produced by the Beijing Automobile Factory, but, there was a domestic SUV several years before it, the Yangtze River 46 off-road vehicle, which is the originator of China's SUV.

In March 1949, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China moved from Xibaipo to Beiping. On the afternoon of March 25, the People's Army was inspected at Xiyuan Airport. The parade vehicle at that time was a captured United States Willis M38A1 military off-road vehicle.

The battle is over, and if you want a car again, there is no place to seize it, how can you fix it? Don't we have one here? Dismantled and dismantled, dismantled, let's see how this thing works, let's try a few according to the gourd painting. Military vehicles are rounded off to be considered weapons, and the weapon has to be handed over to the arsenal for research, if there is no war, the arsenal will not have so much work, and the research point will be able to bear its profits and losses after the car is not in order. So in September 1957, this Willis drove into the gate of the state-owned Chang'an Machinery Factory, which was later known as Chang'an Automobile Company.

After the car came, the brothers in the manufacturing factory were staring at each other, there was no machine tool, no mold, no money, what could you do with just giving a car? I want to Ctrl+V and I don't even have a keyboard! But the leader doesn't care about these: let me say it, it's the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China soon, this is the first time in Daqing, our factory has to make some movement, otherwise one of you here will count as one, and I will go home to farm!

The workers panicked when they heard this, don't be idle and start! Zhang San was responsible for dismantling Willis, Li Si took a ruler to measure, Wang Wu picked up a sledgehammer according to this size, and the brothers were stunned for a few months, and in May 1958, the prototype car was saved. Later, after some improvements, the "Yangtze River" 46 off-road vehicle was officially put into production, which is equipped with a 2.2-liter water-cooled in-line four-cylinder gasoline engine, with a maximum output of 65 horsepower, a maximum speed of 115km/h, a maximum climbing of 30 degrees, and a fuel consumption of 13.7 liters per 100 kilometers. In 1959, 20 Yangtze River 46 participated in the 10th anniversary of the National Day parade as the leader of the parade team.

Later, because of the change in political and military situation, the production of the“Chang'an Brand” Type 46 off-road vehicle was officially stopped in 1963, and a total of 1,390 vehicles were produced. According to the instruction from the superior, the state-run Chang'an Machine Manufacturing Plant delivered all the drawings and materials for the development of this model to the Beijing Automobile Manufacturing Plant (BAECO).

After BAIC got the information, and at the same time borrowed from the Soviet Union off-road vehicle GAZ69, test-produced 210/211/212 and other models of off-road vehicles, 1963 production of BJ210C light off-road vehicles, but because of its small body, the are only two doors, get on and off the car is not convenient, does not meet the military requirements of the battle, and then changed to the division and regiment commanders to use. Although only 300 units were produced, the BJ210C can also be considered China's second SUV.

Later on, to satisfy the real battle, BAIC developed a 4-door, bigger model based on 210C, which is BJ212.BJ212 can be said to be a myth in the history of Chinese cars, which have been sold from 1966 to last month when a new generation was just launched. After the cooperation between BAIC and American Automobile Company in the 80s, BAIC has also brought in a lot of advanced technology to upgrade and transform the 212 and launched BJ212L, BJ2020N, BJ2020S, BJ2020V, etc. Because of the low price, the 212 series has been the pillar of the brand in the later decades. BJ212L, BJ2020N, BJ2020S, BJ2020V, etc. Because of its low price, the 212 series has been the pillar of the BAIC brand in the following decades.

「BJ212」

「BJ212L」

In 1984, Beijing Automobile Manufacturing Plant (BAM) and American Motors Corporation (AMC) established the Beijing Jeep Automobile Company (BJAC) as a joint venture. Originally, the Chinese side wanted to study a sedan, but the Americans felt that everything from zero development costs are too high, rather than the direct introduction of existing models to the money fast, so the final introduction of the U.S. automotive company's Jeep brand's newest second-generation Cherokee, in the form of CKD production, which is later a household name of the BJ213, is also considered to be the third SUV on the Chinese market. Positioned high, the BJ213 was initially very expensive, the basic model 160,000, luxury model 300,000, sales are not very good. It wasn't until 1993 that the Cherokee, a two-wheel-drive version that cost around 100,000 yuan, was introduced, and sales quickly improved. 1995 was Beijing Jeep's most glorious year, with sales reaching 82,000 units.

In 2000 before the Chinese market SUV models were still very few, in addition to the 212, and 213, which can only be relatively rare pure imports, such as the Mitsubishi Pajero, and Toyota Land Cruiser. Into the 21st century, similar to the Beijing Jeep this joint venture to run factories gradually became mainstream, those who can only rely on imports, most of the people can not afford to buy SUVs in the form of CKD domestically produced, such as Honda CR-V, Hyundai Tucson, but also during this period, a future will soon become a myth of the Chinese brand began to build SUVs, and that is the Great Wall Motors!

In 2002, Great Wall Motors almost dominated the domestic pickup truck field, but Wei Jianjun, the boss, worried that one day this market would suddenly go down, so he decided to add another category, which is SUV. At that time, the domestic SUV field, imported and joint venture brands occupy more than $28,169 of the middle and high end of the market, which is the previous we mentioned, $14,084 of the following models in addition to the 212 there is not much. So Wei Jianjun with experience in cost control when building pickup trucks, in May 2002 launched the country's first economic SUV - SAIC MOTOR , then priced at $11,098-$15,464, slightly higher than 212, but the entire configuration of the car on a grade, I remember when the car also has a nickname called”80,000”, precisely because of its cost-effective and got.

Therefore, once the SAIC MOTOR was launched, it entered the top three of the national SUV market that year, and it was from this model that people gradually recognized Great Wall Motors.

Then later is a period of joint venture brand SUV explosion stage, Toyota RAV4, Nissan New X-Trail, Chevrolet Copacetic, Volkswagen TIGUAN, etc., are the emergence of 2010, at this time the other independent brands look at the water to open up the dumplings have begun to start, Chery, Geely, JAC, cheetah crackling out of their SUV products.

"TOYOTA RAV4"

"Nissan Kizashi."

"Cheetah Black Diamond"

"Chery Rover"

And the market demand for SUVs appeared to skyrocket, or as the beginning of the video said in recent years. It may be related to the purchase restriction policy in big cities, it's hard for people to buy a car, who don't want to buy an all-round, SUV that has big space and can go on the bad road, and can come in all kinds of martial arts. The rise of electrification of a series of new power brands also focuses on SUVs, such as Azure and Ideal, both relying on SUVs to start the family.

"NIO ES8"

"Lixiang One"

Nowadays, the streets are full of SUVs, each brand rolled out flowers, refrigerators, color TVs, and sofas all greeted in the car, consumers have more and more choices. Looking back more than 20 years ago, it is difficult to see an SUV on the street, I have to say that China's automobile development is too fast!

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